


Call Me Bella

by Ilsasya24



Category: Labyrinth (1986), Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M, Goblins, Humor, Love Triangles, Magic, Romance, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-30
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-07 00:50:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 38,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/742173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilsasya24/pseuds/Ilsasya24
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Goblin King's persistence is wearing Sarah down. Two years after beating the Labyrinth she decides to run away. Where better to run than Forks, where her Uncle Charlie lives? Using her cousin's name, Sarah thinks that she may have finally found someplace normal. At least, until she meets the Cullens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Starting Over

Sarah Williams woke with her mouth full of the taste of peaches. She was lying on something far too hard to be her pillow and yet too soft to be the floor. And it moved rhythmically up and down as though breathing. Even through the clouds of sleep alarms began ringing in her mind. She went from fully asleep to sitting up in a matter of seconds. A few more seconds had her out of bed entirely.

"Jareth," she hissed angrily.

"Morning Precious," drawled the unaffected Goblin King, still lounging in her bed. Sarah looked at him helplessly. She would not ask him why he was there and give him the satisfaction of making some witty remark. She knew him too well. Besides, she already knew the answer he would give. Seeing him every day for two years had allowed her to have a fairly good understanding of him. But somehow she knew that she'd never stop being surprised by him.

"I am here to see you, of course," Jareth answered her unasked question. Normally Sarah would have immediately retorted with "But why were you in my bed?" but she felt too tired today to deal with him and she really didn't want to know what his answer was. Jareth seemed to push her boundaries every day as though seeing how far she would bend before breaking. With a sigh Sarah sat at her vanity and began brushing her hair.

"Don't you have a kingdom to run?" Sarah asked at last. She could see Jareth smirk in the reflection of her mirror and she, not for the first—and certainly not the last—time wanted to slap the look off his face. Instead, she looked away.

"I am on an errand for my kingdom," he replied smugly.

"And that would be…?" Sarah asked without thinking. It was far too perfect a set-up, she realized belatedly.

"To check on the future Queen of Goblins, of course" At this answer Sarah stilled her hands and sighed again. The brush was maneuvered away from her and it was gently run through her hair. She hadn't heard him get up.

"I will not become Queen of Goblins," she told him but it lacked energy. He had made some allusion to it every day these past two years and she rejected him each time. In the beginning she had rejected him with energy and assertiveness, always reminding him that he had no power over her. Now—two years later—tiredly repeating the same overused line, she understood that he did have power over her, and he was using it to his advantage. He was wearing her down.

As soon as Sarah thought this she began to worry. How close was she to just saying yes if only to stop his persistence? He had been in her bed this morning and was now brushing her hair without a word of protest from her. She didn't love him or even like him. She was just used to him. That was dangerous.

She had to get away from him but—as with most things having to do with Jareth—that was easier said than done. Sarah sorted through the possibilities, rather unsatisfied with what she could come up with. At seventeen her options were limited and even if she had been older, Sarah hardly had the funds to support herself anyway. It wasn't that she hadn't been looking for a job, she most certainly had at the insistence of her step mother—who remained as much of a harpy as ever—but no one would hire her. After several failed interviews, Sarah had pretty much given up and accepted that she wasn't going to find a job for the same reason she could never seem to find lasting friendships ever since her adventures in the Labyrinth: there was something wrong with her. Or maybe, Sarah reminded herself as she leveled a glance at the smirking reflection of the goblin king in the mirror, it wasn't something wrong with her, just her company. Jareth caught her eye in the mirror and only looked increasingly smug about it.

"Are you ready to come home, my queen?" Jareth whispered in her ear. With a huff, Sarah pulled away from his hands and stood from her vanity, shooting him a glare as she did so. Sarah wished she was only angry and that a fleeting quirk of amusement hadn't crossed her lips, but it had. And Jareth had clearly seen it. At least it seemed to satisfy him for the day and he put up no fuss as she grabbed her school bag and trudged down the stairs, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'glittery git' when he disappeared. It would have been more effective if that odd quirk of a smile hadn't mysteriously surfaced again. Jareth was an acquired taste, it seemed, and a very dangerous one at that.

~*~

When Sarah arrived home from school that day Karen was in the kitchen. Stifling a groan at her misfortune and cursing herself for stopping to window shop in antique shops along the way, Sarah carefully tried to creep passed the door and around the room to the safety of her bedroom. Try as she might, Sarah could not slip past unnoticed.

"Watch your feet," Karen called out as she spotted Sarah. "I just scrubbed the floors." Sarah nodded and—with reluctance—stopped to remove her shoes. The day had been nothing but sunshine and, looking behind her, Sarah could see not a single spot on the floors. Even so, it was easier to comply than to fight, especially since the years made it clear that her father would always take Karen's side. Stepping out of her shoes and holding them up to prove that she was no longer tracking non-existent mud into the house, Sarah made a vague gesture towards her room. Escape, however, was not that easy.

"Wait a moment, I wanted to talk to you," her step mother stopped her. Sarah felt as though nothing good could come of this situation. She waited, but Karen gestured for her to sit down at the table before she continued. With a small sigh, Sarah complied. "Your father and I were talking and we wanted to ask you about something." Gingerly, Karen sat down across the table from Sarah. "We know the last couple of years have been difficult for you and we think that maybe a change of pace might be for the best. Maybe it would be better if you spent the rest of the year…." Karen paused but Sarah knew exactly what was coming next. So that was her game, huh? She decided it was finally time to kick Sarah out of the house? She couldn't even wait until her eighteenth birthday.

"Somewhere else?" Sarah suggested with a slight note of sarcasm in her tone. She'd gotten better at controlling her frustration at the injustices of life, but it didn't make this much better.

"Somewhere less busy," corrected Karen, still trying to keep up appearances it seemed. There wasn't much use arguing anyway, especially if her dad had already given the okay. Besides, there wasn't much keeping her here. The only stable relationship she'd been able to keep was with an insufferable but powerful fae who was likely able to follow her wherever she went anyway as long as he knew where to go. It was that thought that pulled Sarah out of her angry thoughts and brought a flash of inspiration. She'd been looking for a way to escape and here it was being handed to her on a silver platter. All she had to do was say yes.

"Your uncle Charlie lives out in Washington. A small town called… Spoons or Knives or something silly like that," Karen was continuing, chuckling a little bit as she did so. "We suggested the idea to him and he said he'd be delighted to have the company. So if you wanted we'd be happy to buy your ticket…." Karen trailed off again, but this time she was actually waiting for a response from Sarah. For her part, Sarah found herself much less upset that her family was so willing to ship her off.

"Yes!" she cried with enough enthusiasm to obviously startle her step mother. There was a slightly complicated look on the woman's face as though she was trying to decide just how exactly to feel about such a powerful response but eventually she settled on relief and happiness. 'To be rid of me', Sarah thought to herself, but returned the woman's smile with a genuine one of her own. If nothing else, that was one problem solved, and she always had liked her uncle Charlie.

Deceiving Jareth was easier than she would have thought. He had only really appeared in the mornings and it didn't seem as though he kept tabs on her for the rest of the day. Refusing his daily proposal was easier as she could count the days left until she would be on the other side of the country and away from him. Even on the very last morning he had not noticed anything different about her. She almost felt a little sad as they continued their daily banter. It wasn't that she was going to miss him or their conversations but more that she regretted that tomorrow he would come and find himself with nothing but an empty room. It was only on the day that she allowed herself to think how he might feel that next morning when he found she'd gotten the better of him at last. Sarah wanted to be elated at the thought and to gloat in her mind about it and, a year or so previously, that's exactly how she would have reacted. Now, however, when she looked at him she wasn't seeing an enemy. If they weren't enemies, Sarah had no idea what that made them anymore, but it was enough to almost feel sorry for him.

That didn't change the simple fact that getting away from him was the best course of action. Even if it didn't leave her with the joy it might have before, Sarah was well aware that she could only go so much longer in her company before she simply gave in and let him have his way simply because he was the only strong connection she still had in her life. Getting away from him meant a fresh start and it was clearly the right thing to do; and she had a long plane ride to convince herself of that.

~*~

Getting off the plane in Port Angles, Sarah had no trouble finding Charlie. He was older and grayer than she remembered but it was clearly him. Having gotten used to people finding her inexplicably off-putting, Sarah had gotten into the habit of keeping her personal space to herself since no one seemed keen to come into contact with her. Charlie chuckled and exerted himself to give her a quick, awkward hug. Sarah hugged him back.

They walked to Charlie's police cruiser without a word. With Sarah spending the entire year they had no shortage of time, and Sarah liked Charlie's silence. It was peaceful, and peace wasn't something she'd had a lot of in recent memory. She spent most of the hour drive staring out the window at the forest while the radio played softly in the background. Forests always he seemed magical to Sarah and she loved them. Not simply magical in their beauty, Sarah often found herself wondering if there were creatures beyond imagining living just inside their boundaries and hiding from those who didn't believe. There was no doubt in her mind that magic was real, she'd seen it. Most people who'd been what she'd been through would have believed in it; though, she supposed, most would rather fear magic than embrace it so perhaps it was for the best.

"Do you remember Isabella?" Charlie asked her some ways into the trip. Sarah was jolted out of her fantasies at this unexpected interruption. Her eyes left the forest to turn back to her uncle and she nodded.

"My cousin? Yeah," she replied, though with a small degree of hesitation. She had only seen her cousin once and it was when they were both very young. She wondered what there was to say about her.

"She was supposed to come up to stay with me." Sarah was suddenly filled with guilt.

"Oh Charlie, I'm sorry! If you had told me…" he waved a hand to stop her apology.

"She didn't come." This flat and calm statement seemed more heartbreaking than any tears or any anger.

"I'm so sorry," Sarah said gently. He shook his head.

"I'm fine. Besides, I have you to keep me company," Charlie said gruffly. Sarah gave him a fond smile. Charlie was a very simple man, but simple might be exactly what she needed. "I only mentioned it because I got her entered into the school here and it's a small town so people talk…"

"They are going to think I'm Isabella," Sarah stated. Charlie scratched his neck and gave a nod. He'd only glanced her way once or twice throughout the whole of the exchange, keeping his focus on driving. It was his way, Sarah remembered. He'd always kept himself at a distance from the world. Sarah supposed they had the in common now, even if it wasn't by choice. Even so—or perhaps because of this—Sarah felt her cousin's actions much more strongly than she would have otherwise. More than anything she wanted to offer Charlie what little consolation she could. "That's fine. I could be Isabella. If you don't mind that is," Sarah added hastily. Charlie shrugged.

"I can change it," Charlie offered but Sarah shook her head. She could tell that he wasn't fond of the effort involved in changing all the paperwork and even less in having to explain to the people why his niece was coming instead of his daughter.

"Nah. Who knows, it could be fun. And I could use a fresh start," Sarah mumbled the last part to herself. That was why she'd come out here after all, wasn't it? An escape. "Besides, I can't think of anyone I'd rather have for a father," she said, not untruthfully, given her current mixed feelings about her own father. Charlie blushed and mumbled something. Sarah returned to staring at the forest with a smile.

The house was much as Sarah remembered it from years ago. It was simple and small, but served its purpose nicely. Her father would always refuse to stay and book them into a hotel, but Sarah appreciated the appeal of a home. Her eyes were drawn away from the house rather quickly, however, to the rusted red pickup truck in the driveway. Her eyebrow rose.

"Hey Charlie," she called, exiting the car and seeing Charlie already starting with her bags. He paused. "What's with the truck?"

"I bought it cheap from Billy Black. Figured you would need a car." Sarah assumed that the truck had been intended for Bella, but she appreciated the gesture anyway. Grinning at him, she walked around the car to help with the bags, but not before impulsively leaning over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I love it," she assured him, seeing the relief on his face as she did so. At Charlie's insistence, she left the bags to him and made a beeline for the truck. Though she hadn't seen the inside yet or even knew if it worked, Sarah loved it because it was the first time in a long while she felt she had someone looking out for her.

Sarah ran her fingers along the rust red paint, a few flecks brushing off as she did so. Only Jareth had given her thoughtful gifts like this. She pulled her hand away sharply. She wouldn't—couldn't—think about Jareth. That was why she had left in the first place, to get away from him. It would entirely defeat her purpose if she began to—heaven forbid—miss him. Shaking her head she followed Charlie into the house.

It was not a large house, but with just Charlie there it seemed cavernous. Sarah paused to look down the hallway at the long rows of picture frames. They were all of Isabella, one for every year. Sarah sighed. As she turned she saw one more picture on the other side of the hall. Her own smiling face stared back at her. It was the picture she'd sent last year. Every new discovery she made seemed to make Sarah feel better and better about her decision.

After all, in a town like Forks, what could possibly go wrong?


	2. The Cullens

Sarah woke the next morning to an empty room. She was alone; it startled her. Jumping up as quickly as she had previous mornings, she scanned the room as if searching for a hidden Jareth with nefarious intentions. It took her several minutes to remember where she was. Even longer to remember who.

"Isabella Swan," she said slowly, trying out the name. Sitting on her bed she repeated it using a variety of inflections and accents until she dissolved into a fit of giggles. The sound was foreign to her and she had to pause for a moment to remember that it was her making the noise. These feelings of freedom and happiness ought to have been commonplace but now they felt more like embracing old friends who had been gone for far too long.

"Bella Swan," she said once she had finished giggling. "Beautiful Swan." She started giggling again. As cheesy as some might find the name, Sarah loved it. It appealed to the part of her that loved to run to the park after school to recite lines to a grumpy old owl. Perhaps it was childish, perhaps it was naïve, but Sarah was starting a new life and she could be whomever or whatever she pleased.

With her mind fully made up, Sarah continued to giggle as she dashed to the bathroom. Her reflection stared back at her through the mirror, bright eyed and grinning. How long had it been since she'd smiled like this? How long since she'd laughed herself silly? The answer was very simple: too long. The grin slipped away from her face the longer she looked, only now really considering everything she'd done in the past twenty-four hours. She'd taken Sarah Williams with all her problems and concerns and set her aside on a shelf to return to later when she knew how to deal with it all.

"You made the right choice, Bella Swan," she assured herself, and for the first time in a long time she was certain that she had. Once she was fully clean and dressed Sarah—with great enthusiasm—skipped to the stairs. She had just begun her decent when her toe caught on the edge of the stair sending her off-balance and about to careen down the stairwell, arms wind milling in a instinctual and desperate search for purchase. For a moment she was falling.

Instinctually she managed to grasp the handrail and jerk herself upright again. Sarah stood still for several minutes, catching her breath and allowing her adrenaline to fade. She had never thought she had been that clumsy. Slowly—and with a good deal more caution—Sarah managed the rest of her journey downstairs without incident. Charlie was already seated at the table with a cup of coffee in front of him and the sports section of the newspaper in his hands.

"Morning Char—Dad." Sarah quickly corrected herself. Charlie looked up from his paper with a raised eyebrow. She knew what he was thinking before he said it.

"You really want to go through with it?" he asked her, a trifle skeptical. Sarah nodded and let out a cheerful "yep". Charlie sighed and straightened out his paper. Sarah sat down with a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice and ate in silence as she examined the other pieces of the paper, most happily settling in with the entertainment section. Sometime later Charlie set down his newspaper and stood.

"Well then," he said, naturally awkward when it came to showing affection, "have a good day… Isabella." Sarah waved cheerfully at him.

"You too." Charlie shrugged on his coat and made his way to the door. Sarah didn't need much attention anyway, she'd spent the last few years without it that just the one comment was enough to brighten her day. But it left her with one more thing she wanted to say. "Oh, and dad," Sarah called to him. Charlie turned curiously. "Call me Bella."

Perhaps, thought Sarah sometime later, she should have asked Charlie for directions. Of course, she hadn't expected to need them in a town as small as Forks but it seemed her sense of direction was not as reliable as she had thought it to be. And, it appeared Charlie had not filled up the tank on the truck yet. Oh well, she could kill two birds with one stone. Pulling into the gas station with a fortunate half an hour until school started, it was a lucky she had decided to leave early. Too early some might say. To be late to her first day of school would hardly be a good start. And Sarah did like school. Before her trip to the labyrinth she'd found it monotonous and dull with the exception of her theater classes but later on it became a welcome haven, one that helped fill her need for social interaction which was something she'd struggled with more and more each passing year.

After glancing around for the attendant but not seeing one, Sarah got out of her car to get a better look. The gas station wasn't busy enough for such a wait, she noted. Another car was parked around the other side of the pump but there appeared to be no attendant there either. Did they expect her to pump her own gas? Casually looking around at the driver of the other car—a sleek black Mercedes—and seeing a young, well-dressed man leaning over the fuel pump. Sarah returned to her pump in mild frustration. She wasn't in New Jersey anymore. No, she was in Washington where everyone pumped their own gas. But how exactly did they do it? The longer she looked at the pump, the less likely she found that it was going to just open up and spill its secrets to her. Instead she'd have to make a bother of herself.

"Excuse me," she called out carefully, making her way over to the Mercedes and tilting her head to look at the man filling it. "I'm sorry but could I have a minute of your time?" By now Sarah simply expected to be turned down or to have her requests met with reluctance. It wasn't a lack of confidence in herself but a few years of experience which had quickly shown that people seemed reluctant to take to her. Ever since the Labyrinth, she realized, but there was nothing she could do about that. Not even a Jareth she could ask. For now it was best to forget all about it.

"Do you need some help?" returned a voice, much friendlier than Sarah had been expecting. People generally got the vibes to stay away from her quickly but he seemed more than willing to talk to her. The thought made her relax.

"Uh… yeah," she said slowly, shooting a dubious look back at the gas pump. His smile grew gentler as he stepped forward and took the nozzle from her. Slowly he explained the process and watched as she attempted to fill her tank.

"You're new here," he said. It was not a question. Sarah did suppose that much would be obvious though, given her apparent lack of knowledge. "Are you from Oregon? Not many people stop in Forks."

"I just moved here from Phoenix." Recognition lighted in his eyes quickly, almost too quickly for Sarah's comfort. She knew that Charlie has passed around the tale that his daughter was moving here from Phoenix but she hadn't counted on how big of a gossip piece that would be in a small town. Now more than ever she was happy she could save him the embarrassment of having to admit his own daughter turned him down.

"You must be Chief Swan's daughter, Isabella," he said. Time to put all your acting skills to work, Sarah thought to herself. In a way she supposed that's what this was. It was just another acting role, but one that she was going to enjoy no matter what.

"Just Bella." She stuck out her hand for him to shake.

"I'm Carlisle Cullen," he responded as he grasped her hand. Sarah felt it as soon as their hands touch, the sudden shock that forced her to withdraw hers sharply. Carlisle looked taken aback.

"Sorry," he said, looking slightly sheepish. "I have poor circulation."

"I'm sorry. It was just a bit surprising," she said as she properly shook his hand. He smiled at her and she smiled back but there was something tight about both of those smiles. Poor circulation didn't seem enough of an excuse. His hands were not just cold, they felt like they were dead. In the end that hadn't been why she'd pulled away, however. No, she had pulled away because she had felt something, a sort of unearthly feeling. It was almost the same feeling that Jareth gave off, a feeling of power and of magic. Taking a moment to carefully eye Carlisle, Sarah decided she must have been mistaken. There was nothing unnatural about him that she could see. He'd been nice when she'd needed help and seemed to give off an unthreatening air. Her paranoia was getting to her, it seemed. She was safe in Forks; there was nothing supernatural here for her to worry about.

Finishing filling the tank and putting the nozzle back. Sarah looked back up at Carlisle with a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said earnestly. He smiled back at her.

"I take it you haven't done that before," he said. She nodded a bit self-consciously. After a moment Carlisle's face seemed to express confusion. "I thought Arizona was a self-service state as well," he remarked. Sarah blanched. It hadn't occurred to her last night that she would actually be expected to know some things about Arizona. Acting generally meant having a script to follow and not having to worry about understanding it as long as she could feel the emotions of the character. Research had rarely been a part of that.

"I didn't drive a lot," she lied, hoping it would satisfy. When Carlisle glanced down at his watch, she assumed that it did and she was thankful to see him off.

"It was nice to meet you Bella," he said with a smile. Sarah was happy to smile back at him.

"You too." He returned the smile and began to walk away. Sarah was about to get into her car when she remembered the other reason she had stopped to get gas.

"Wait," she called. He turned back. "How do I get to Forks High School?"

Sarah managed to find the school in good time due to Carlisle's directions, thankfully keeping her from being late. She supposed it wouldn't have been the end of the world if she had been, but Sarah did want to do what she could to not embarrass Charlie. Realizing she still didn't have an idea of her classes, Sarah sighed a bit as she prepared herself to go into the office. While she might have been on time, she began to prepare herself to be late to class. Getting noticed became harder and harder with each passing year. At her old school she'd been standing at the counter for more than half an hour trying to get someone to help her with the transfer paperwork.

However, Forks it seemed was as different from Sarah's home as possible. Rather than waiting she was greeted immediately and had her schedule, a map and a friendly smile from the receptionist before she'd had time to say little more than her name. There were no suspicious looks or impatience, just cheerful comments and helpful advice. Not having experienced this in a while, it threw Sarah slightly off guard. She only barely made it on time to her first period English class. After a sincere introduction by the teacher and curious but not unwelcoming gazes from her classmates, Sarah made her way silently to her seat at the back of the room, not quite sure what to make of all this.

Since beating the Labyrinth, Sarah had always had the sneaking suspicion that she'd been cursed as people had begun to shy away from her. The friends she'd had before had drifted away. Maybe it was just how high school worked, or maybe there was something actually wrong with her, Sarah had never known for certain. All she knew was that—unfair though it was—she'd grown used to a lack of attention and affection from the people around her. Maybe it had been Jareth's influence after all. But if being in Forks meant that she could have friends and live a normal life, she'd told herself that he wouldn't wish for anything more.

Being her favorite subject, Sarah felt a bit let down by the syllabus she'd been given. Much as she liked to read, Sarah had really been hoping to see a few plays pop up on the list rather than only novels. Her schedule didn't include theater classes either, something she'd asked about only to be informed that the school had no theater program. So far Forks had a lot for her to be excited about, but that was not included. Here she had the chance to actually get cast in plays and enjoy productions but no theater in which to do that. As class continued she found herself doodling the names of her favorite plays in the margins, lost in imaginings. The Importance of Being Earnest. The Tempest. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The Labyrinth. Sarah stopped as she saw the last title she had written. Biting her lip, she slowly ran her eraser over it. Moving the eraser faster and faster, she became frantic to remove any trace of that work from her life. She wasn't satisfied until there was nothing more than a faint, illegible shadow where the title had been, and even then it seemed like it was looking up at her mockingly. Forgetting would be a long process. As she tried to shake the strange feeling away, the bell rang. It took her a moment to understand what it was, far too lost in thought. She was still sitting at her seat when a boy with dark hair and a poor complexion strolled over next to her desk.

"You're Isabella Swan, right?" he began, causing Sarah to look up at last, sliding the syllabus off her desk and into her bag quickly. She didn't know why she had the sudden impulse to hide it, the words were long turned illegible and they wouldn't have meant anything to anyone else anyway. Even so, the guilty feeling remained as though she was caught doing something wrong.

"Bella," she replied, sticking her hand out to shake his. Cool and confident, she reminded herself. Sarah had never been shy, but recent events had given her a slightly stronger need to please others than she'd had before. He looked at the proffered hand with slight bemusement before taking it.

"Eric," he told her. Smiling faintly at him, Sarah turned slightly to pack up the rest of her things. He hovered about the edge of her desk in slightly awkward silence. He seemed interested in talking to her though so Sarah wasn't planning on telling him off. Between wanting to keep a good reputation for Charlie and not wanting to go back to the isolation she'd had before, Sarah was determined to be pleasant.

"Where's your next class?" he asked once she had finished packing her things.

"Building six?" Sarah checked her schedule for confirmation, not wanting to be wrong. "Yeah, government."

"I'm going to building four. Why don't I walk you?" Eric suggested, causing Sarah to shrug and accept his offer. Her sense of direction had been failing her lately anyway so a little help might be needed.

It was strange. This town was strange. They made small talk as he walked her to her class (which was passed his, Sarah noted questioningly). Thankfully he did most of the talking, though he asked the occasional question about Arizona, they were easily answerable even if she found herself making up facts on the fly. Chances are that he wouldn't try and fact check her. While it was strange to attempt to speak about a place she had never been, her acting classes had gotten her used to that. The strangest part was simply the idea of a friend walking her to class. How long had it been since that had happened? Two years? Two and a half? How long had it been since she had made small talk at all?

"Well, good luck," Eric said. Sarah jumped a little when she realized that they were already at her classroom door. She hadn't even realized how little she'd been properly paying attention. At least it seemed that he hadn't noticed. "Maybe we'll have more classes together." He sounded earnestly hopeful which made Sarah smile warmly at him.

"I hope so," she said, and meant it. There was no saying what the rest of the school would hold so having one person she knew that genuinely didn't mind her company was a relief.

~*~

Sarah found the rest of the morning to go just as well as first period had. There was always at least one person who would take the trouble of coming to talk to her, brightening her day up more than anyone might have guessed. And, after Mr. Varner (her trigonometry teacher) had her introduce herself to the class, people seemed to smile at her even more. Perhaps it was because she was such an oddity in this small town. Still, she'd take being the town oddity over being completely unwanted.

Lunch with friends was another one of the things often taken for granted that Sarah had missed out on. She basked in the feeling, a peculiar little smile on her face though hardly listening to what was being said. The gossip about their teachers and classmates had lost her a long time ago, much though she tried to keep up. Glancing up from the conversation, she accidentally caught Eric's eye from across the room. He waved at her. She waved back. It was just as she was turning away from Eric that she saw them.

They were sitting at a table in the corner and they were the only ones sitting there. As a one-time loner herself, Sarah could tell that they were separated from the rest by choice. It wasn't that their classmates avoided them, but rather that they avoided their classmates. There were various reasons for why that could be and Sarah found herself curious. They all seemed to be a matching group so it was possible they simply weren't good at talking to those outside of their little clique. Or perhaps they were a bit too snobbish to try. They did have the striking good looks which often came bundled with aloofness, she noted with casual interest.

They weren't talking nor were they eating, nor did they have books or games so it appeared that they simply entertained themselves by staring into space. What was the point of even sitting together in a group like that if they weren't going to interact? Sarah supposed they could hardly be judged by one casual observation alone. Perhaps they'd gotten into a fight and they were all brewing in resentment. Her inquisitive and fantasy loving mind latched onto that idea rather quickly and started trying to fill in the gaps to that story. It was then that one of her new acquaintances, Jessica, noticed the direction of her gaze after several failed attempts to catch Sarah's attention.

"You found the Cullens I see," Jessica said, a slightly bitter snort coupled with that comment. Sarah glanced back at her. Cullen. Why did it sound familiar?

"The Cullens?" Sarah looked back over at the table only to find that one of the so called Cullens was looking at her expressionlessly. His short crop of copper hair drew attention immediately due to its slightly unique color, but Sarah discounted it quickly. As a thespian she'd gotten quite used to strange hair in for form of both wigs and natural. And she was used to being observed and his dark eyes didn't faze her. She smiled at him; he looked away.

"That's Edward Cullen," Jessica informed her with a giggle after watching the exchange. While she'd seemed a bit disgruntled by Sarah's interest at first, it quickly gave way to excitement given her love of gossip and her interest in the subject. "Next to him are Alice and Emmett Cullen. The other two are Jasper and Rosalie Hale. They all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife."

"Carlisle Cullen," Sarah said quietly to herself, the answer coming to her at last. Jessica looked over at her in shock and mild disappointment. Sarah was better informed than she had expected.

"Yes, Dr. Cullen." A doctor, huh? Sarah admitted that it did seem to suit him, if only based on her very limited knowledge of the man. However with him having been the first entirely friendly face she'd seen in a while other than Charlie's, Sarah had been quick to develop a strong appreciation regardless.

"They don't look like him," Sarah commented, examining the group a bit closer. There was something about them that drew her attention far more than she could really understand. For some reason they felt familiar in some way.

"They are all adopted. Dr. Cullen is really young, twenties or thirties." Sarah nodded, accepting that as a plausible answer.

"They seem very… close?" Sarah wasn't sure if she meant it as sarcasm or not. The group did not talk to each other yet the way they sat indicated a bond. They were at the very least more attached to each other than the rest of the school since they seemed to clump together to keep the world at bay.

"They are all together. Jasper and Alice. Emmett and Rosalie. And they live together." Sarah looked back at Jessica to see the face she was making. Clearly this was something of a scandal in the school though Sarah couldn't really say she cared. As far as strange and unthinkable things went, she had always been good at accepting them. Her jaunt through the Labyrinth had only made it easier.

"Have they lived here long?" Sarah asked, mostly because it seemed Jessica was keen to talk on the subject. Her attention shifted away from the group and towards her conversation partner, interest in the Cullens waning. Much though she wanted to understand the strange feelings of familiarity, Sarah also felt a strong resistance to the idea, something telling her it was a bad idea.

"No. They just moved here two years ago from Alaska, I think." Sarah nodded and was about to ask another question when the copper top—she had forgotten his name—looked over at her again. She'd happened to catch his eye as she'd glanced up herself. Instead of an expressionless mask, his eyes showed genuine curiosity now. Sarah's eyes expressed the same emotion.

"Who is he again?" Sarah broke her eye contact with the boy to turn back Jessica. She looked almost affronted by the idea that Sarah had forgotten his name.

"That's Edward. He's gorgeous but don't waste your time, he doesn't date." There was a slight bitterness to Jessica's tone that clearly implied that she had been rejected. Sarah's lips lifted into a slightly devious smirk, faintly reminiscent of the teasing expression of a certain goblin king.

"Why not?" Sarah asked as Jessica took a sip of her water. "Is he stuck-up, gay or asexual?" Jessica spat her water out in surprise on the person in front of her. While Jessica apologized to her friend, Sarah assured her that she was joking, though she couldn't have imagined a better response to the comment. Her gaze wandered back to the Cullen table and she was surprised to see the shoulders of one of them—Emmett she believed—shaking while Edward was leveling him with a glare. It seemed oddly timely with what she'd said, she noted, though it was more likely she'd simply missed something.

Sarah examined Edward (or what she could see of him as he was turned away from her) and thought about Jessica's comment. Gorgeous was he? Sarah didn't deny that he was attractive yet the Jessica had said it had made him out to be an incomparable beauty. Sarah was doubtful that he should be deemed gorgeous. It had to do with her standard for beauty, she decided. After living two years with the insufferable but undeniably handsome goblin king, Sarah's standard for beauty may have been bumped up a few notches from normal.

Edward turned back to look at her again, this time his eyes were guarded. It almost seemed as though he had heard her comment. Sarah openly stared back at him. After a minute he turned away again and the five of them stood and walked gracefully out of the room.

~*~

Sarah entered her next class with a quiet but kind girl named Angela she'd met at lunch, a bit behind schedule as they'd gotten lost in talking. It was nice not having to walk to classes alone. Sarah introduced herself to the teacher who signed her slip and handed her a book without ceremony. He left Sarah to take the only unoccupied spot in the classroom, the seat next to Edward Cullen. Her lips quirked up slightly as she placed her things down, though she tried to control her expression so as not to seem like she was mocking him.

Sitting down, Sarah was quick to turn with a polite smile, an arm starting to reach out to offer to him when she noticed his posture. Edward's entire body seemed to have gone rigid, muscles tensed so violently that his entire body seemed to be vibrating uncontrollably. While Sarah was used to not being particularly liked on sight for no reason, for the life of her she could never remember anyone ever having this strong of a reaction to her. Not even her stepmother had ever looked at her with this much disgust, even in the midst of their occasional shouting matches. Sarah had been hopeful that her life in Forks would be different because the people so far had been kind, but it seemed that there was simply no escaping these kinds of people. For a moment Sarah wondered if she hadn't been too far off the mark when she had jokingly called Edward "stuck-up".

Turning back to the front and determined to ignore him, Sarah let the boy be. She had nothing to gain from trying to force him to like her if he wasn't going to. Everyone else she had met here was kind and she felt as though she could actually make friends. But that didn't mean that she needed to make that attempt with everyone. She wondered idly how a man like Carlisle could raise a son like Edward before she put him out of her mind completely.

Sarah paid attention to the entirety of the lesson, regardless that she had done it before. It was the easiest way to prevent her mind from wandering to her tablemate and it was useful revision. Science had never quite been her strong suit. Her teacher had once commented that she was too fanciful for it and always looking into hypotheses and ideas which had no basis in science. Once the bell rung, Edward was out of his seat and the room before Sarah had much chance to even blink. She glanced curiously out of the door. On the list of odd things that Edward Cullen had done, that was already number three. And three was already enough to start wondering about things.

"Isabella Swan?" Sarah looked up at a fair haired boy with a round face and a winning smile. She wanted to sigh as she realized he was another perfectly attractive guy ruined by her association with Jareth. Not that she was interested in dating, but Sarah was feeling progressively more aware that escaping her past would be much harder than just a few thousand miles and a new name.

"Just Bella," she said in confirmation. Sarah stuck out her hand in greeting as she had done to everyone she had met, students and teachers alike. They all gave her a strange look before accepting. This guy, however, seemed to have already heard about her strange habit.

"I'm Mike," he said as he took her hand. He shook it for a moment too long, though Sarah didn't pay it much attention. Quickly gathering up her things, she nodded at him.

"Hey," she said, at a loss for anything else. "Nice to meet you."

"Can I help you find your next class?" he asked helpfully. Sarah smiled at him. Everyone here seemed remarkably helpful. Perhaps even a bit too helpful at times, but Sarah would take it.

"I've got gym, so I think I'm okay." Mike's answering grin was wide.

"Me too. Let's go together," he said with gushing enthusiasm. He seemed a bit overzealous but Sarah knew that it was much better than the alternative. She agreed happily.

Mike certainly knew how to talk but Sarah was able to keep up with him. She let him talk about living in California to deflect his questions about Arizona. The thought crossed Sarah's mind that she should do some actual research about Arizona to make conversations easier, but she doubted that she actually would.

"What did you do to Edward Cullen? I've never seen him act like that before." Mike asked her. Sarah's mood darkened a bit. What had she done to him? She'd existed. That, it seemed, was enough to be offensive.

"It was the first I'd talked to him," she told Mike with a shrug, looking just as confused as him. She didn't make any effort to explain that this sometimes happened, she simply smiled. "Can't win them all, I guess, right? He was different than normal?" Unable to help herself, Sarah tossed in that last question, wanting to know just how much his attitude changed in response to her.

"Yeah. The Cullens seem aloof but usually they keep to themselves." Sarah pondered this a moment. She didn't have to wonder why someone could take such an intense dislike to her so quickly. Her entire school had done that before. After her trip to the Labyrinth, it seemed that no one wanted anything to do with her. But that had not carried to this school. Everyone here seemed to think she was normal and they treated her well. All except for him.

"I don't know," Sarah said, though she had a few ideas. It was easier to simply deflect the conversation with ignorance and shrug it away.

"He's a weird guy," Mike remarked, seeming as though he was trying to boost her up slightly.

They had reached the gym now and Mike disappeared into the changing room after giving her a little wave. Sarah found the gym teacher but he told her she'd have to sit out until she could get a uniform. Vaguely, Sarah wondered why she'd even bothered to show up then. After having been in dangerous and taxing situations, Sarah had grown rather fond of gym as she recognized that it had probably helped save her life.

When the bell rang, Sarah made her way to the office to drop off her paperwork. As she pushed the door open and stepped into the warm office, she immediately recognized the head of copper hair that was bent over the front desk. He was arguing with the secretary over a change in his schedule. Had it been anyone else, Sarah would have felt bad for eavesdropping but she merely leaned against the wall and waited for him to be done. One thing Sarah was very good at was holding grudges.

"Surely there must be something," he insisted. The secretary shook her head.

"I'm afraid that is the only science class during that period," she said. Sarah started. Science class? The jerk was trying to switch out of her class. To be so desperate about switching this late in the year could only mean that he wanted out because Sarah was in his class. She glared at the back of his head and pushed up from the wall ready to give him a piece of her mind.

The door opened as another student walked in and dropped a paper onto the desk and walked out again. This action somehow seemed to draw Edward's attention to Sarah. He glared at her with his black eyes before turning back to the secretary.

"Never mind," he said hastily, turning to leave even as he spoke. "I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help." He strode past Sarah with a quick a walk as he could manage. Sarah didn't step out of his way, making eye contact with him as he left, watching as he shifted his entire body to be as far away from her as possible

"Figures," she muttered as he moved passed her, sighing to herself. It would likely be better if he did swap out of the class anyway if he was going to react like that. Sarah didn't need that in her life anymore. As she stepped up to the secretary and handed over her paperwork, she smiled but for the first time that day the expression had been strained.


	3. An Engima

"Does Forks have a theater program?" Sarah asked Mike as he walked with her to Government the next day. Mike glanced at her curiously, wondering where the question had come from.

"Nah. When the old theater teacher here retired a few years back there was never a replacement," Mike replied, only knowing the story through what he'd heard since it had been before he'd moved to Forks. No one had considered it that big of a deal though.

"Why not?" Sarah asked, genuine curiosity shining through her expression. The idea of there not being any kind of theater program was unthinkable. Even in all her worries about what Forks would be like, Sarah had never once considered that as a possibility. She thought everywhere had one.

"Not much interest, I guess," came the response, and Sarah could tell that Mike himself wasn't terribly interested in the idea of a theater program himself but she wasn't going to let that stop her from asking. "The program had been failing for years. There is still the old auditorium behind building five."

"There is?" Sarah repeated excitedly, clearly already planning to make a pit stop by there later. Mike quickly tried to figure out a time when he could offer to show her but Sarah was too fixated on the idea currently floating around her mind to notice him. "In that case why hasn't anyone made a theater club? If there haven't been any plays for a while, I bet the town could get behind it. Might even be able to get sponsors."

"You'd have to get people to join." Though not one to be particularly shy or have stage fright, it was clear that Mike had some doubts about her idea and not nearly the enthusiasm that she was exhibiting. But Sarah had already made up her mind.

"You wouldn't join a theater club?" Sarah asked him with a sideways glance. Aware that she might be pushing her luck, Sarah knew that any possibility of getting back up on stage would be worth it. Mike's expression looked torn.

"I might…" he consented as they reached the classroom. Sarah smiled at him.

"It's worth a try," she said. "Besides, who doesn't want the chance to be someone else? To experience what their lives and adventures would be like, if only for a few hours." Mike glanced over at her. It was probably too early for him to be saying the line that popped into his head just then, but he found that he was already speaking before he could stop himself.

"Be someone else?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow. "Why would you want to? To me it seems like Bella Swan is already pretty amazing." Unaware of the irony of it, Mike wasn't sure why his comment seemed to amuse his companion so much. But—once she'd finished laughing—she'd smiled and thanked him. Mike wasn't sure what exactly that meant as far as progress was concerned.

~*~

Sarah hadn't really expected her simple idea to catch on so quickly. Though Mike had agreed readily enough—if, she suspected, more out of interest in pleasing her than in theater—Sarah had expected the rest of her new friends to take more convincing. In the class period before lunch, Sarah took the time to make up a quick speech to try to get the support she needed to turn her idea into a reality but it was unnecessary. They all seemed excited by the prospect, especially when Sarah mentioned that people who didn't want to act could still have important roles backstage. With the questions she was getting asked, Sarah found herself wondering if people were in fact more interested in the transfer student and her wacky new idea than in theater itself, but at this point she'd take what she could get.

Between getting the school approval, recruiting members and finding a staff supervisor, Sarah barely had a chance to notice that Edward Cullen was not in school. It only did occur to her that he was gone when she reached her biology class and was left with a table to herself. Sarah figured Edward must have gotten his transfer after all so she took the opportunity to spread her things out across the table, taking up both her space and the free one next to her. Beyond that she was determined not to think about him or his violent dislike of her.

Admittedly though it would have been nice to have a seatmate to discuss her answers with. Science had never been her strongest subject. Sarah's creative mind took to literature with ease and her writing was near flawless, making even history fairly simple. One might have thought that math would trouble her, but after her journey through the Labyrinth, Sarah had developed an interest in logic and thus worked harder at math until she mastered it. It was just science that she struggled with. Perhaps not having him as a distraction would work in her favor.

And thus Sarah's first week in Forks flew by. Not since Jareth had unfairly stolen those two hours from her had she known time to slip away so fast. It was even better that it was fun and friends, not magic, which caused the time to move so quickly. It had been too long since Sarah had people she could call friends and even when she was younger people had always considered her a bit odd. Maybe the people in Forks were so sheltered that a bit of eccentricity was something to be coveted or perhaps they were all a bit odd themselves. Either way, Sarah started to believe she really fit in there. She could make this into a home.

There had not been a single sign of Jareth since arriving in Forks either, something Sarah was thankful for though it hadn't completely eliminated her paranoia. Her first impression of him had cemented him as unearthly capable and the fact that she'd been able to outwit him and escape seemed more implausible than she was comfortable with. While this may not have been the first time she'd beaten him, it seemed much more unlikely. Was he searching for her? Sarah didn't know which answer she would have been happier with. If he was looking, it meant that this freedom of hers would eventually come to an end. If he wasn't… well didn't that just mean he didn't care? As complicated as her feelings were towards Jareth, she didn't want him not to care.

On the night that it first began snowing, Sarah just sat on the front steps and watched it come down. Snow had always seemed a bit magical to her, the way the white blanket covered everything and even the way sound traveled differently. But, she knew how dangerous it could be, leaving her sitting out waiting for Charlie to come home safe.

"Hey Charlie," Sarah asked him that night as they were finishing up their burgers, "You have snow chains, right?" He glanced up at her and then out the window, almost seeming surprised at the rate of the falling snow. "It's supposed to freeze tonight." Charlie nodded.

"Sure thing, Bells," he replied, getting up from the table to go look for them. Sarah grinned at the name. It had taken him nearly a week but Charlie now never seemed to think twice when calling her Bella. Even if it wasn't her real name, Sarah loved it when he called her that. Somehow it had a way of making her feel at home, like she really was a part of the family. Charlie felt more like a father to her in the past week and a half than her own father had in over seventeen years. Charlie returned as Sarah was just about finished clearing off the table. Looking at the snow chains in his hands, Sarah grinned and reached out for them.

"Thank you so much," she said, already feeling relieved that she wouldn't have to worry about driving in the ice without them. Between the unfamiliar streets and the cold temperature, Sarah wasn't about to take any chances.

"Need help?" Charlie offered in his usual manner, never putting in more words than he needed to.

"No, I've done it a million times," Sarah assured him. Charlie didn't seem convinced until he and Sarah went outside and he watched her put them on. Though he wouldn't say it, Sarah knew he was impressed.

~*~

Though she was supposedly from Arizona and shouldn't be used to the increasingly cold weather that settled over the town, Sarah continued to thrive. If anyone had been paying close enough attention, it would have been clear that Sarah was better equipped for snow that someone of her background ought to have been, but no one was. The people in Forks were quick to accept her and still seemed to think of her as an oddity, but they didn't have any questions about the inconsistencies in her story. Perhaps that lack of questioning made her a bit too lax in her actions, but Sarah had always been brash. When some boys called out and asked if she was interested in a snowball fight, her answer had been to lob a snowball perfectly at him with a laugh before taking shelter behind her truck. They were all ten minutes late to class, dripping wet and with the warning that next time they'd end up with a detention, but it had been worth it.

"So," Sarah said as she sat down and took a quick bite of her pizza, "We need to decide on a play." There was a hum of agreement from the people around her. After having realized that her classmate's knowledge of plays was rather limited, Sarah had planned for this conversation and picked up her bag to pull out a large portion of the contents of her bookshelf, setting them on the table. "Have a look," she suggested as they began glancing through the pile and discussing the merits of each.

For the first time in a long time, Sarah really felt like she was in her element. Holding a copy of Hamlet as she discussed the play with her neighbor, she was certain that there was nothing that could bring her down. At least, not until a voice from a bit further down the table chirped up.

"What about this one?" Looking up from her conversation, Sarah glanced at the book Lauren was holding up and the blood drained from her face immediately. She didn't remember putting that book into her bag when she'd been grabbing suggestions this morning. Honestly, Sarah didn't remember packing it to take with her to Forks at all. In fact, Sarah distinctly remembered tossing the book out upon her return home. So why was it here? Mouth falling open as she tried to force some kind of objection out behind the rising dread she could feel, the rest of her tablemates didn't seem to notice.

"What's it about?" one asked, making Sarah's heartrate increase even more. No. This couldn't be happening. Of all the more than twenty plays she brought, they couldn't be choosing that one.

"Apparently it's to do with a princess whose brother gets kidnapped and she has to solve a maze in order to save him from the evil goblin king." Seeing the interest peaking on the faces of her acquaintances, Sarah already knew it was too late. She couldn't fault them for being interested in the play, it had always been her favorite after all. And what was she supposed to tell them if she claimed they couldn't do it? Any mention of what she'd actually gone through and they'd think she was insane. Her hands shaking as she collected her plays back, Sarah could hardly think. She knew that if anything happened and anyone happened to call upon the goblins because of this, it would be her fault, but it was too late to turn back now.

"This is so unfair," Sarah mumbled to herself, before realizing what she'd said and feeling even more dread. It was okay. She was going to be okay. After all, it was just a play, it wasn't as though it even said the words that summoned Jareth anyway. If she had to, Sarah supposed she could edit the play a bit before giving out copies. Her mind was full of this and only this when she was jolted out of her thoughts but a voice in her ear.

"Edward Cullen is staring at you," Jessica whispered, almost as if she was purposely trying to add more anxiety to Sarah's day. Things were already complicated enough as it was with her fears about one pain in the neck, Sarah didn't need to be worrying about someone else's blind hatred of her. Even so Sarah pulled her attention away from the black hole of panic inspired thoughts to look up and over towards the Cullen table.

"What?" Sarah asked her with confusion. "He's not even.…" Before she could finish that statement, Sarah's eyes caught Edward's and she just let her voice trail off in confusion. "Damn, does that mean I have to share the bio table again?" Sarah said that more to herself than to Jessica since she didn't think the girl would appreciate it. Jessica's unamused scoff proved her right. The comment hadn't been for Jessica's satisfaction, but rather her own. Moving her eyes back down to her lunch, Sarah tried to focus on calming her already erratic heartbeat. There were too many things going on at once, she couldn't handle it all. She simply didn't have the motivation to be concerned with Edward's hostility at the moment.

~*~

The walk to biology was short as always and Sarah set her things down and chatted with Angela for a moment before taking her seat. Pulling her completed homework out and setting it within easy reach, Sarah pulled out a purple folder she'd been using for the theater documents and grabbed a blank piece of paper, but paused. She knew she was supposed to be writing down a cast list and dates for auditions and so on, but her pen hovered above the paper uselessly. As far as a cast list, first she'd have to write down his name, right? No, nothing had been decided for sure. Slowly Sarah started writing down a list of alternatives to the play and trying to brainstorm objections she could use in order to push for a new selection. Her mind was almost entirely focused on this when there was a slight scraping of the chair next to her. Sarah sighed quietly but tried to ignore it.

"Hello," came a voice to her left. Sarah started and had to look up quickly since she almost didn't recognize it. Had she been wrong and someone else had transferred into the class in Edward's place? Her eyes immediately confirmed that it was Edward who'd spoken to her but Edward's voice no longer sounded hostile and she looked up to see him nearly grinning at her. There didn't seem to be any cockiness or cruelty in his eyes. Somehow that really just made her more uneasy.

"Hi…" she replied hesitantly. As an actor, Sarah had long since gotten over her shyness but there was something about his eyes that made her uncomfortable and she looked down. That was how she noticed his posture. He had pulled away from her as far as their table would allow. So much for not being a jerk. "I don't have cooties you know," she said with a roll of her eyes, no longer feeling as overwhelmed by him. Edward looked surprised.

"What?" he asked, his brow furrowing quizzically. Sarah gestured in the space between them, noticing he also tensed up a little more as her hand shifted towards him. Her eyebrow rose.

"You're scooted over as far as possible. Either you think I stink," Sarah noticed a light twinkle in Edward's eyes as she said this, as though he were in on a private joke. She was not amused. "Or you think I have cooties," she finished, looking at him expectantly. He looked a bit lost for words for a moment and Sarah just sighed.

"Oh… I didn't realize…" Sarah rolled her eyes at that response. It would have been impossible for him not to have noticed, the position had to be uncomfortable at the very least and was obviously forced. She turned away again before having to glance up as he moved closer.

"You didn't have to do that." Sarah smirked as she said that. Edward continued to look befuddled. "You also don't have to talk to me, you know. We may be sitting together but you seem to have made up your mind to hate me, so you can keep doing that if you want." This was worse than what Sarah had expected for today. She'd expected the same as before, that same tense annoyance. At least with that she'd know what to think and how to react. But, between her panic before—and heartbeat that still fluttered a bit whenever she thought about it again—and her fear that Jareth would pop up if she so much as said the word Labyrinth, Sarah was not in the mood to deal with confusing shifts in persona.

"You are a very confusing person, Bella Swan," he remarked, his lips twitching up at the sides as though he were fighting a smile. "And a hard one to read."

"Maybe you're just too easily confused, Edward Cullen," she retorted. Admittedly though Sarah had thought she was fully prepared to be senselessly hated, she found herself fighting a smile of her own a small bit. That strange feeling of familiarity was still hovering around Edward.

The teacher chose that moment to begin the class and the chatter died down. Sarah made sure to pay attention though her mind did drift between Edward and Jareth occasionally. One thought left her with a slightly pleasant sort of confusion while the other was nothing but dread. Still, at the moment both seemed equally problematic and worth her attention. Once Mr. Banner began passing out microscopes, Sarah glanced at Edward through the corner of her eye and noticed he was still staring at her.

"Nice contacts," Sarah whispered to him as the teacher moved away from them. Edward once again looked confused.

"I'm sorry?" he asked, his smile fading to a look of confusion. Sarah barely noticed, shifting her eyes down to find the pages in the book she was supposed to be looking for.

"Contacts. I knew a guy who changed his eye color all the time too. He went from green to blue to black and sometimes even red or purple. I never did figure out what his natural color was." Glancing back over to be polite, Sarah noticed that Edward seemed to be growing more distant the longer she talked and had even looked away at last, as though to hide his eyes from her. What was there to be embarrassed about to be caught wearing contacts, Sarah thought to herself. It was just one more entry on the ever growing list of oddities around Edward Cullen. Sarah decided that for now she would just brush it off and reached for the microscope.

After five minutes of struggling to get the slide into focus, Sarah had no idea what she was looking at. She knew biology would never be her strongest subject and cells confused her even more. Science was always telling people that magic and goblins didn't exist, that teleportation and shapeshifting were the things of stories. Having seen all of those and more in real life, Sarah had to say she didn't know how much she trusted science. Pulling her book towards her with a sigh, Sarah flipped through the pages in her desperate search for the answer.

"Prophase," Edward said suddenly. It wasn't until he spoke that Sarah noticed he'd turned back to her. He was smiling again which, while it didn't surprise her, still made her a bit uncomfortable as it. The boy was way too hot and cold. Sarah had moved across the country to escape one attractive and mysterious but utterly confusing man, she didn't need another in her life.

Sarah was about to check his answer with the picture in the book when he swiped the slide out and put in another one. He barely looked at it before writing down another answer. Too dumbfounded to stop him, Sarah watched him complete their assignment in all of three minutes while she knew the rest of the class would be struggling for an hour. And, remarkably, Sarah didn't even think he was cheating. She wasn't quite sure why but she was fairly certain that all of his answers were correct. He had that kind of confidence to him.

"Were you planning on letting me have a look?" Sarah asked him, slight exasperated and indignant as she reached for the microscope. Edward reached out for it too and their hands met. Both jerked their hands back suddenly. "Cold," Sarah mumbled quietly to herself. Edward's hands were very much like Carlisle's. It wasn't their frigid temperature that caused her to pull back but that spark of magic.

"I…" Sarah had no doubt Edward was about to rattle off the same comment about poor circulation when Mr. Banner appeared at their table and picked up their worksheet.

"Very nice, Edward but were you planning on letting Isabella here learn this too?" He looked mildly annoyed as he said this and Sarah wondered if this was a common problem of Edward's. Maybe that's why he sat alone. It also made Sarah want to stand up and defend herself against the accusation that she'd had no part in this. Then again he probably could have guessed as much from her grades.

"Bella answered three of five correctly," Edward lied smoothly. Mr. Banner looked abashed and turned to Sarah but she was too busy gaping at Edward to notice for a moment.

"Did you do this lab back in Phoenix?" Mr. Banner asked her, drawing her attention back to him.

"Uh… sure," she said with a nod. The teacher smiled and mumbled something about extra credit as he made his way back to his desk. Sarah turned back to Edward and eyed him carefully.

"What was that?" she demanded of him. Edward didn't seem to understand.

"He would have made you redo it," he defended himself.

"I didn't do it in the first place," Sarah said with a roll of her eyes. "Unlike you, I need to learn this stuff." Edward seemed to understand then and he carefully moved the microscope over to her.

"You see how those are lined up like that? This is metaphase." Edward explained the process to her slowly, answering all of Sarah's questions simply and easily. When he'd finished, Sarah was beaming. Though she was one to hold grudges in most situations, Edward was doing quite a lot to improve his estimation in her eyes. While she still found the science he was explaining to be shortsighted and probably false in some respect, at least she understood what she was supposed to know.

"Well that makes more sense now," she told him at last, slumping back against her seat as they'd finished going through them all. "Thank you for that." With her head tilted slightly to the side, she examined him for a moment. "You know, you're not a bad guy after all."

"After all? Was that in doubt?" he asked with a smile that Sarah thought was supposed to charm her. While it did make her think slightly better of him, it couldn't completely erase what had happened before.

"Yes," she said seriously, nodding solemnly. Seeming to have gotten a hang of the way she operated a bit more, Edward looked more amused than surprised by this response. Sarah glanced over to the clock to see that they'd actually used most of the class time on work after all. It had been worth it, she supposed. Jareth and the Labyrinth had not crossed her mind for over an hour. It probably would have stayed that way if Edward hadn't noticed the slip of paper she'd been writing on before.

"Have you decided on a play?" he asked, gesturing slightly to the list she'd been making. Feeling like she'd been suddenly doused in cold water as she was forced back to remembering, Sarah finally just shook her head, forcing a smile.

"No," she said, her voice a bit weak. Clearing her throat, Sarah tried again. "No, no. We're still working on that." He looked as though he didn't quite buy what she was saying and Sarah was thankful when the bell cut off any chance he had to counter her comment. She gathered up her things as quickly as possible in order to escape the conversation, but he'd beaten her to it, already up and gone before she'd had time to fully process. For just a moment Sarah gaped after him. She really wished he'd just make up his mind whether he disliked her or not because she had this strange feeling that if he did, they could actually be friends.


	4. Labyrinthine Dreams

Sarah dreamed of the Labyrinth that night. She'd been so busy with settling in and starting a theater club that, after saying her quick goodnight to Charlie, she fell into bed and ultimately into a dreamless sleep. Having tried her best to completely lose herself in homework and housework to not think about the disaster with the play choice, Sarah had managed to make herself forget all about the cause of her earlier panic. Her subconscious, however, was more than happy to remind her as that night, Sarah found herself running through the Labyrinth with a clock chasing her chiming its thirteenth hour.

"Too late! Too late," it chimed at her. Sarah kept running, knowing that if the clock were to ever catch her, she would lose and Toby would be claimed by the goblin king forever. As impossible as it sounded, she had to stay one step ahead of it if she was going to win. However, Sarah was just running in circles. She knew she had to escape; had to find a way out. There was just one exit—dark and forbidding—and Sarah somehow knew that if she ever went down it there would be no returning: she would never be the same. Yet it stood and waited as though knowing someday she'd be tired enough to give in.

However Sarah was nothing if not determined. Though she never stopped her futile running, one thing was missing. Where was the leader of this beguiling but incomprehensible place? Where was Jareth? Why was he not here to lord over her, offering one of his beautiful and deadly deals? As she thought that, Sarah thought she heard a light shuffle somewhere in the distance. Turning towards the sound, she strained her eyes, waiting for him to materialize out of the darkness with more shimmering promises and enticing deals. No one appeared.

"You owe me two hours!" she called out towards the noise, though she saw nothing. "I want my brother back!" Still nothing, though Sarah was certain she heard a light chuckle just before she woke up. Or, the more frightening notion, the chuckle was what woke her up. Jolting straight up in bed, Sarah glanced around her room desperately. She was alone, always alone. Sighing to herself and forcing the breathing exercises she'd practiced for the past two years, Sarah managed to calm her racing heart.

Slowly edging out of bed, she walked over to her window and threw it open, breathing in the cool night air. The dim light of the clock read 2:00 and she felt exhausted. Sarah wasn't quite sure she could get back to sleep, but her tired mind prevented her from registering the ease with which her window slid open. It had not always been that way. Nor could she remember if the window had been unlocked normally or if she'd simply forgotten unlocking it. In the end Sarah supposed it didn't matter. On the second floor, it was unlikely that anyone would be using it. Besides, the nighttime visitor she feared the most would be undaunted by that simple of a obstacle.

Sleep did not come easily and what little she did catch was haunted with goblins, chickens and helping hands. But the goblin king remained surprisingly, worryingly and blessedly absent.

~*~

Tired and hardly functioning, Sarah was immensely glad she had the snow chains already on her truck. She couldn't imagine going through the hassle of it while so tired or attempting to drive safely without them. After last night she had almost considered skipping school and calling Charlie to say she was sick but he'd come to check on her and there was no way she could explain the reality of what had happened to him. She'd made that mistake once.

The school day went by in a haze. Several of her friends and classmates had approached her to ask if she was alright and she brushed off their concern with friendly smiles and assurances that she'd just had trouble sleeping. That much was the truth, after all. Sarah long ago realized that people did not need much explanation for things in general. They were used to simple answers and would accept them easily. Few people had things to be paranoid and suspicious of, she supposed.

It was the talk of the Labyrinth which finally woke her up properly, the dread settling in on her like a bucket of ice and sharpening her senses. She'd been too tired to come up with a decent rationale for swapping the play so Sarah found herself spending part of the lunch hour in the library, making copy after copy of the script. At first they'd tried to look it up online but as far as anyone could tell the book seemed to either not exist outside of her copy or be extremely rare, something which only fired up her fellow students even more. Bundling up the copies of the script, she handed a few out to the people at her table, saving the rest for use in auditions.

"Are you going to be auditioning for the lead?" Sarah heard Eric ask, and—after lifting her heavy head—noticed he was directing the comment at her. A few curious glances came from all around her, including not quite so pleased ones from Jessica and Lauren. Raising her hands innocently, Sarah was quick to shake her head. Had it been any other play she would have at least considered it, but this was already unfortunate enough as it was.

"Definitely not," she said, trying to laugh her nerves off. While she knew that they couldn't read her mind, Sarah still felt as though she was being watched too closely as though they were expecting her to make a mistake. "Since I was the one who started this I thought it might actually be better if I put all my effort into organizing it. Maybe as the director if no one minds." It seemed no one did, causing Sarah to let out a long sigh of relief. It would be easier to distance herself from the play this way. It was never going to be comfortable, but it would be easier.

Listening to the chatter of her friends as the topic was dropped and looking around the cafeteria, Sarah wondered at her situation. Living a magic-free life was never something she'd envisioned for herself, even before the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth had just given her a new idea of what magic was. There were plenty of things in the normal world that Sarah had once considered magic but, after seeing real magic, she had since lost that innocence. Ordinary life lacked the majesty of real magic, but real magic was much too dangerous and changeable to be safe; just like Jareth.…

Sarah forced her mind away from those thoughts which had been following her through the end of lunch and to her next class as she sat down at the biology table. She could feel the exhaustion returning and her mind having trouble tearing itself away from thoughts of the Labyrinth. It wasn't until Edward sat in the chair next to her with another seemingly open smile that she could force the thoughts to go away. Something about Edward made them go away and so she looked back at him curiously. Maybe it was simply that he was yet another mystery that was begging to be solved; maybe he was a sign that ordinary life didn't have to be as boring as she thought it was. What was it about him that caught her interest? Regardless of what she thought of him as a person, Sarah couldn't help but feel the strangest vibe from him that almost made her want to know more. While she was trying to formulate a question to help her understand, he beat her to it.

"Do you get much snow in Phoenix?" he asked. Sarah just blinked at him, wondering where that question had come from. Maybe he was just making small talk or perhaps he was genuinely curious. A small voice wondered if he knew more than he was letting on about her.

"What?" she asked on instinct before she shook her head slightly to clear it. "Oh, no. About as often as we get rain." Sarah laughed, hoping her joke would cover up her limited knowledge of the subject. Hopefully Edward was making small talk and had no real interest in learning about the state. He nodded as if she'd confirmed something he'd been wondering for a while, Sarah tried not to imagine what.

"You seem at home in it," observed Edward. Though it was not meant to be an accusation, Sarah felt uncomfortable with his comments. He was paying too much attention and seeing things Sarah would have much rather kept hidden.

"I went skiing a couple of times when I was younger." When in doubt Sarah decided the truth was the best way to go. She'd be less likely to forget it later and it rang truer than most lies. For small things it did, at least. The devil was in the details after all.

"And you like it?" he pressed. Sarah shot him a look but nodded. It was odd for her to be so defensive about such a simple question but she felt as though he was trying to get her to make a mistake and catch her in a lie. Her guard increased.

"Sure, I'd take snow over rain any day. Except for the sound rain makes on the roof, I like that." Sarah wasn't quite sure why she was offering him more information but she half hoped he'd give her something in return, not just another question.

"Then Forks must be an interesting change." It was not a question but Sarah could tell that Edward was probing for more information. Maybe he'd sensed that his questioning was causing her to close off more than open up.

"You could say that," replied Sarah, keeping her responses as short and honest as possible. The change was very interesting but that had nothing to do with the weather.

"Then, why here?" Another question. Sarah sighed. It wouldn't be long before she'd have to result to lies if this kept up and Sarah didn't particularly want to do that. Charlie had accepted her suggestion of staying hidden like this out of convenience but it was occurring to her now how much more embarrassing it would be for him if she was outed. It was that thought that caused her to put up a polite, if slightly insincere, smile.

"It's a family thing," she told him. Generally that seemed to be enough information for people and they took the hint that perhaps she did not want to share those intimate details of her life. She could not have made it much clearer that she didn't want to talk about it without saying that outright.

"Did you get sent here?" Edward appeared undaunted. Looking at him with clear skepticism, Sarah was silent for a moment.

"You're very chatty today," she commented. "Are you writing an article on me for the school paper or something?" Her words were slightly harsher and pointed than she meant them to be, but she was purposely deflecting. At first he seemed taken aback but then his eyes narrowed slightly as if he was aware that there were things she wasn't telling him and it bothered him. Sarah supposed she hadn't been subtle with wanting to change the subject.

"I'm just making conversation," he assured her, though Sarah still felt as though there were more to his questions than that. She raised an eyebrow.

"So…" began Sarah, drawing the word out, "Since your transfer didn't go through you decided to befriend me instead of run away?" The grudge was still there. Granted, it was muted since he'd been much friendlier of late, but she was still waiting for a proper explanation for that before completely forgiving him. For his part, Edward at least looked slightly abashed if not apologetic.

"I'm sorry," he responded, for once looking a bit uncomfortable and even embarrassed. It still wasn't an explanation but something told Sarah she wasn't going to get one.

"I'm over it," she assured him, even if she more assuredly was not. "But I'll answer your question," she continued. "No I was not sent here, I chose to come. There were things I needed to escape and things I needed to find. The whole cliché new start thing. Not really all that exciting." Vague was good. There were still no lies to be found in her words and she had answered his question, if not completely satisfactorily, then at least enough to imply he shouldn't keep asking. Or that was what Sarah thought anyway. Edward seemed not to follow those basic rules.

"Escape?" he wondered aloud. "Escape from what? A person?" The part that disturbed her more than his continued questioning was the fact that he'd more or less correctly surmised her reasons for leaving from the very little she'd said. Sarah swallowed and tried to figure out a way to word the truth to make it reveal nothing. Jareth wasn't human so she felt justified in not describing him as a person.

"Not really," said Sarah finally, taking comfort that it was technically not a lie. "It's complicated." This time, despite her tone and words that said clearly not to ask, Sarah was not surprised by his insistence.

"I'm sure I can keep up," Edward said with confidence. Sarah rolled her eyes, torn between annoyance at him pressing her for answers she didn't want to give and amusement at his cheek.

"I think the interview is over for today," was all she said before turning her attention back to the front of the room. She could tell that he was interested in continue his line of questioning but she was finished answering them. Even he could tell that. Part of Sarah wanted to start badgering him with personal questions but she got the feeling he'd use the opportunity to turn the spotlight back on her and Sarah had said too much already. The more she tried to push the Labyrinth and Jareth out of her life, the more they seemed to come up anyway. It wasn't f…. Sarah cut herself off from even thinking that word and let out a long sigh. She noticed Edward's attention flick back to her with a look of frustration on his face, but Sarah pretended that she hadn't seen it, keeping her attention forward.

~*~

"Cullen seemed friendly enough today," Mike commented on their way to gym. Sarah made a noncommittal noise. She didn't know if friendly was what she'd call that. While he smiled and made conversation, it felt more as though he was waiting to pounce on any mistake she made. In some ways he made her feel just like a conversation with Jareth: as though no matter what she said, she was always going to be wrong in some way.

"Talking to him is a bit like a good cop, bad cop routine," she laughed. "Even when he's the good cop I still feel like I'm in some kind of trouble." Mike seemed pleased by her flippantness and her lack of awe on the subject of Edward. They traded banter the rest of the way to the gym and even during class, though the comments in class quickly turned into taunts and insults as the two of them chuckled and smirked at each other though the volleyball net.

The snow was more of slush by the time school had ended. Sarah made a mental note to take off her chains when she got home. What little energy she'd had left had been worn out in gym and she slogged through the parking lot feeling dead on her feet. Maybe it was just a trick of her tired mind or maybe it really was there, but Sarah saw a small, dark shape moving swiftly across the parking lot and her mind screamed to her one thing: goblin.

With only that thought in her mind and no others, Sarah dashed after the creature. People honked and yelled at her as she wove around cars but Sarah heard none of it. Skidding to a halt and grabbing on to the rear bumper of her truck for support, she leaned down to look for the creature. It had to be there. She wasn't crazy. If there really was a goblin then that meant that Jareth would not be far behind. The thought caused her to lean heavily on the truck for support. A loud commotion was what caused her to look up again from under her truck, first scanning through the crowd of panicked eyes and picking out a lot of faces that she knew. Jessica. Mr. Banner. Edward. And then there was Tyler. Sarah's scanning eyes had stopped at him and the van he sat in which was careening right towards her.

Tyler, the minivan driver and a friendly acquaintance of hers, stared back at her in horror. He'd been trying to get around the congestion she'd caused when he'd lost control of his car. Sarah couldn't even close her eyes. She'd spent most of her life dreaming of living in an immortal fantasy so the idea of death never really crossed her mind. Now that she was staring it in the face, Sarah just laughed. After all she'd seen and done, it seemed ridiculous to be killed by something as trivial as a van.

There was no pain. That's what Sarah noticed first though the throbbing of her head quickly followed that thought. The sound of the metal as it scrapped together hurt her ears but she was in too much of a shock to do anything about it, still laughing to herself. She'd survived cleaners, a goblin army and the bog of eternal stench but now she was just waiting to be van. The world seemed to be moving impossibly fast and only she was stuck in slow motion. It was only after the world seemed to have stopped that Sarah noticed she was being held in a pair of impossibly cold arms.

"It's a piece of cake," she muttered to herself, causing another light chuckle. Why was it that when things were all trying to stop her, she felt in much less danger but it was the real world that seemed out to kill her? The person holding her let out a confused noise but Sarah was still too far into shock to hear him. Her eyes refocused and she found her gaze leveled to the bottom of her truck. What was first just a fuzzy black blob came into focus and Sarah found herself staring at one of the creatures of her nightmares.

"Go away," she hissed, reaching a hand out to shoo goblin. Edward's eyes followed the gesture with confusion. "No one invited you here."

"There's nothing there, Bella," the melodic voice told her quietly. Sarah was sure she saw the creature mouth 'Bella' before it disappeared. She sighed. Part of her wished that her head would stop hurting so that she could understand what just happened, but another part was grateful for the headache that was preventing any clear thoughts from running through her mind.

"It never goes away," she mumbled to herself. Running might have distanced her from Jareth, but the Labyrinth never seemed to go away. And, where the Labyrinth went, so did its king. How foolish to have thought she'd escaped. Sarah should have learned by now that with Jareth things were so rarely a piece of cake.

"Help will be here soon. Hold on," the voice urged, sounding as though it was growing ever more concerned with her. She wasn't making any sense, but then again her life had stopped making proper sense a long time ago. Sarah shook her head, causing it to pound harder.

"It's too late," she mumbled, seeing the clock dance before her eyes. The dream filled her mind and in that moment it felt almost as though she was talking to Jareth himself. All that she could think was that she wasn't quite ready to give up this freedom. "I want my two hours." With that, Sarah slumped back, unconscious.


	5. Suspicions

Having only just come to be familiar with her room in Charlie's place, waking up somewhere unfamiliar was a shock to Sarah. She'd known something was wrong long before she'd even opened her eyes, noticing the feel of the bed itself. Her first fear (which was common upon waking up somewhere new) was that Jareth had spirited her away in her sleep. This was easily and quickly discounted as she looked up at the sterile white ceiling. If it was Jareth, Sarah knew she'd be a lot more comfortable. It wasn't hard to identify her location as a hospital, though she couldn't exactly recall how she'd ended up here.

"… are you sure? She hit her head pretty hard," came a familiar voice faintly. Sarah knew it, but couldn't place her finger on exactly who it belonged to, still a bit muddled.

"I checked her myself, Edward, everything seems fine," assured another, equally familiar voice. It was only when she realized that it had identified the other voice that Sarah made the connection that the second was Carlisle. In that case it seemed likely they were talking about her, so she listened in.

"You didn't hear her. She wasn't making any sense. I think she was seeing things," Edward argued. Sarah's brow furrowed at that. Seeing things? Admittedly she couldn't quite remember exactly what had happened after the car had come her way. Yes, Edward it seemed had saved her but exactly why had she been in that kind of danger in the first place. At this point it was almost a matter of pride to her that she would have thought she'd have more wherewithal to not have to be saved. She'd only stopped there because something had caught her eye. Slowly things started to come back to her as Sarah remembered chasing down the shadow across the parking lot before pausing and focusing her attention on the flash she'd seen disappearing under her truck. And then the crushing sense of defeat hit her as Sarah remembered she hadn't just been being paranoid. After the accident, there had been the unmistakable figure of a goblin huddled under her truck. Sarah had seen it and, much more worryingly, it had seen her too.

"We won't know anything for sure until she wakes up," Carlisle said, and Sarah took that as her queue to make her consciousness known.

"Good thing I'm awake then," she responded before Edward had a chance. The long silence that followed her words almost made her laugh, but instead she pushed herself to sit upright, holding a hand to her head. It really did hurt, but Sarah wasn't sure if it was because she'd hit it or just a normal Jareth themed headache. The two men she'd been eavesdropping on entered her line of sight and she could see a quiet amusement on Carlisle's face. "Didn't mean to cut in there, but it felt like something you should know." Even Edward, who was looking not entirely certain of her sanity, managed a slight bit of a smile at that.

"We meet again, though not in the best of circumstances, it seems," Carlisle greeted her, approaching the bedside with confidence. Being a doctor suited him well, Sarah decided. With a gentle touch, Carlisle's fingers replaced her own as he gently pressed into the spot on her head, noticing the grimace. "I heard you hit your head. Does it hurt?" Just shrugging her shoulders, Sarah tried to dismiss his concern in the politest way possible. Whatever feelings she had towards his son, she did like Carlisle.

"It's not too bad. I've had worse than this," she assured him readily. This comment did not particularly sit well with either of the men around her, but Sarah didn't offer any more explanation. Her experience with headaches was far vaster than she really wanted to admit to. Besides, not only had she been through worse than a bump on the head, there were far more pressing things on her mind. Even so, Carlisle shone lights in her eyes and did a few tests until he was satisfied that she didn't have a concussion. Sarah put up with it. When he deemed her good to go, Carlisle suggested that she have Edward walk her out. Feeling as defeated as she did, Sarah didn't put up much of a fight. It was likely that Jareth would show up any time now and maybe having some company would delay him. As bold as he was, Sarah didn't really expect him to pop up until she was alone.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" he asked her as they moved out of earshot of Carlisle, clearly noticing how distracted she seemed. Sarah was quick to nod. Staying in the hospital might delay Jareth's appearance or, honestly, it might not. Jareth always seemed to have a way and means to do just about anything. All that remained now was simply to prepare herself for the inevitable.

"I'm fine," she told him firmly. "I was already pretty tired, so the bump on the head didn't help me any, but I'll be fine." There was something in the way his lips pressed into a thin line that said he didn't really believe her. It was as true as anything else she'd told him though so she simply pretended not to see his disapproval. As she moved into the lobby she was quickly accosted by Charlie as well as a few of her friends from school so the opportunity for him to question was lost regardless. By the time she'd looked around for him again, Edward was gone. Gone, but certainly not forgotten.

~*~

That night Sarah's mind alternated between sitting in cold dread while waiting for Jareth's inevitable appearance and puzzling over the enigma that was Edward Cullen. Since there was nothing she could do about Jareth other than wait until the timing suited him but was unable to sleep, Sarah found herself sitting down at her desk with a piece of paper in front of her. At the top she scrawled 'Edward Cullen' in the fanciest script she could manage. The script itself was for her own amusement and just another in a long list of distractions she was attempting. Below this she put to pen all the things she'd been making note of in her mind.

1)Rapid changes between cold and friendly.

2)Ability to move quietly. Also very quickly.

3)Denied contacts, despite eye color changes.

4)Stopped a moving van?

When Sarah reached the fourth point, she paused and stared at it for a moment. How had Edward saved her anyway? She'd been so caught up in the meaning of the goblin under her truck that it hadn't occurred to her to ask how Edward had managed to stop a truck without being hurt. Or how he'd moved across the parking lot in order to do it. While she'd enjoyed her own private and silly fantasies about things, the longer Sarah thought the more she began to wonder if she had been more right than she thought in thinking that Edward wasn't normal. She could hardly dismiss the idea, given the things she'd seen, after all. And then there was the fact that, though Edward was different than Jareth, he left her with the same unmistakable feeling of otherworldliness. No matter what, Sarah was convinced that there was more to him than he was letting on.

A sound outside her window caused Sarah to jump harshly enough to slam her knees into the bottom of her desk. Grumbling a bit she moved to the window. She'd opened crack to let in some air, but had been too nervous to open it all the way. Yet, despite having been alone for hours, there was still no Jareth. What was he up to? Thinking that she'd almost prefer it at this point if he showed up rather than leaving her in suspense, she threw open the window, leaning slightly out of it as though she was looking for someone hiding out there. The noise immediately stopped. As her eyes scanned the outside, she noticed the shadowy figure of a bird sitting in the tree facing her. For a moment the two simply stared at each other. Her heart was pounding in her chest the longer she looked. Was it him? Part of her wanted to call out to him but she found herself slightly tongue-tied. The fear that even so much as saying Jareth's name would bring him immediately caused her to hesitate. Slowly she took a deep breath.

"Is that you?" she asked into the night, not sure what kind of response she was expecting. The owl gave a light hoot but did nothing else. Sarah squinted suspiciously at it. "If it's you then just come out already," she cried at last, glaring at the bird. "I'm not a moron, you know." The bird gave another hoot and flew off, leaving Sarah just looking at the tree. "Or maybe I am," she muttered to herself, sinking down to rest her elbows on the window frame. It was then that she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye towards the ground. No matter how long she continued watching, however, Sarah saw nothing else. She eventually managed to drift off to sleep and a more relaxed one than she would have thought possible. All problems could be dealt with in the morning, Sarah decided.

~*~

The morning arrived very anticlimactically. As soon as she remembered yesterday's events, Sarah had leapt out of bed as she expected to find Jareth lounging in there as well, but Sarah was alone. Unable to believe it, she checked in the closet, under her bed and everywhere she could think for a man to hide but in the end she was simply and wonderfully alone. After going through her morning routine as usual, Sarah found herself brightening up over the prospect that Jareth wasn't coming after all. Maybe he really didn't care that much… though the fact he'd sent goblins to hunt her down seemed to say otherwise. Or perhaps he'd accepted that she wanted some space… though Sarah didn't imagine Jareth would be one to respect that. At the very least he'd want to come question her about the disappearing act. Sighing into her breakfast, Sarah admitted that she had no idea what Jareth was thinking.

Unless the message just hadn't been relayed at all, Sarah suddenly thought. Not heartless enough to want to think about something bad happening to the poor goblin, Sarah didn't pursue that line of thought very far, but she kept it in her head as the solution she was looking for. In that case she was still safe and could enjoy her freedom a bit longer. It was only when she'd looked outside and noticed that no one had thought to drive her truck back after the accident that Sarah started to fall out of her good mood again. Charlie had long since left, probably assuming that Sarah would be taking the day off so she was left standing on the steps and staring at the empty space with chagrin. She didn't want to stay home today, it would only lead to sitting around and waiting for Jareth, whether or not he actually knew about her. It was only when a silver Volvo pulled over to the curb that she looked over and her surprise only mounted as Edward climbed out of the driver's seat.

"Need a ride?" he asked, looking slightly smug about it all. Honestly Sarah was finding herself more convinced of her theories. Edward probably had a knack for being in the right place at the right time, she thought to herself, shaking her head. Not being privy to her thought, Edward seemed to take her expression as a refusal. "Were you planning to stay home after all?" His gaze moved up and down her appearance, taking note of the bag on her shoulder and book in her hand and seeming to defy her to argue with him.

"No, no, I'm coming," Sarah said. The ride to the high school wasn't long, but it might just be enough time to try and find out more about her suspicions. If nothing else it was definitely private. Moving to the passenger side, Sarah paused with bemusement as Edward quickly opened the door for her. After giving him a dubious look, she got in and sorted through her thoughts as she waited for him to do the same. She could hardly come right out and ask if he had some kind of magic powers. That was the quickest way to wind up in an institution of some kind. As he climbed in and started up the car, Sarah just stared at him wordlessly, causing him to shoot a few curious glances her way as well.

"Something wrong?" he asked, actually seeming almost embarrassed by the scrutiny.

"You know, you're a very confusing person," Sarah told him, surprised to see that it caused him to snort. Of the reactions she'd expected, this laughter was not among them.

"You're one to talk," Edward responded. "I'm not sure I've met anyone as hard to read as you are." He was doing it again, Sarah noted. She'd started trying to talk about him and found him pressing into the subject of her past. It almost felt like they were waging some kind of contest to try and wring the answers they wanted out of the other without giving away their own answers in return. In that way it was almost fun, frustrating though Sarah found it at times. She did enjoy games.

"I don't know about that, I'd say you give me a run for my money." She wasn't about to let him win if she could help it. Edward had likely been waiting for her to deny his comment with a reply about how she was actually rather open so he could toss out a few more probing questions. Whatever she could do to avoid those, she would.

"Is your head alright?" he asked, causing Sarah to choose to believe she'd won that round. It didn't matter if he wasn't even aware they were having a contest, she was going to win anyway. Smiling pleasantly, she nodded, almost having forgot about ever hitting her head.

"It's fine. Char—dad was fussing over me for most of the night even so." There it was, a mistake. Of course she'd been bound to make one eventually but she wondered why of all people it had to be in front of the person who'd take the most note of it. Sarah decided it was in her best interest to distract from it. "It was really lucky that you were there, I was pretty sure that was the end for me. I wasn't really thinking clearly. I even could have sworn I saw you all the way on the other side of the lot just before it happened. That's impossible, right?" Her conversational tone and self-effacing laughter were her best acting efforts at work. Mostly she wanted to see what kind of reaction he'd have. This would be the confirmation she needed to tell her if something was really up with him. The way his hands gripped the steering wheel tighter and the annoyed flash of his eyes told her exactly what she expected.

"Very lucky," he responded, clearly trying to match her tone but not quite doing it. He looked frustrated again. Sarah was fairly certain she'd never frustrated anyone as much or as consistently in her life. "You were seeing things though. You seemed to be talking to someone that wasn't even there." It was Sarah's turn to look slightly frustrated. At least, until she fully processed the ramifications of what that could mean. Perhaps the goblin was nothing more than a cruel figment of her sleep deprived and adrenaline fueled mind. That would explain a lot.

"Not my finest moment," she remarked. Regardless of whether the goblin had been real or not, there was no point in trying to argue that it was. Edward, even if he had some kind of magic, would likely never believe her. He looked like he was going to ask more though and Sarah wanted to quickly think of a distraction. They were pulling into the lot now which meant that there was likely time for him to get out one more question. Sarah had the worrying feeling that it would be a question about what it was she thought she saw. How did you even explain goblins to someone who didn't even know the story? The story!

"Oh, I forgot," Sarah cut in before he could ask the question. Quickly bending forward, she reached into her bag for the extra copies of the script she had on her as they parked and held one out to Edward. "Since you were curious before, I thought you might want to give acting a shot." The suggestion came with a bright smile as she waited for him to take the pages from her hand. When he did, she unbuckled and let herself out of the car before he could help her. "Auditions are next Tuesday if you're interested."


	6. Chapter 6

Time passed in much the same way. Her interactions with Edward continued to feel like fending off a friendly interrogation, though she'd never gotten the chance to properly confirm her suspicions about him one way or the other. After that Tuesday she began to see him more, however, as Edward surprised everyone by not only showing up to the auditions but bringing along both Alice and Emmett. It was assumed then that the lead roles were all spoken for, but only Edward got up to read for a part. His performance was the best, but Sarah had hardly expected differently. Nor had she been particularly surprised by how heated it had made the race for the leading female role. Alice seemed much happier volunteering her time to help out with hair and makeup and Emmett was invaluable as a stagehand. Between the successful casting, rehearsals and classes (as well as no sign of Jareth still) another month passed with relative harmony.

As caught up as she was in the theater club, Sarah hadn't really had time to properly think about much else. The closer the production got, the more time she was devoting to helping people learn their lines, sorting out sponsors from around town or working out technical kinks. Since the theater program had been shut down for so long, very few people knew much about how to run a show and Sarah really only knew the basics as far as the backstage side was concerned. It wasn't long before a lot of her free time was devoted to scouring the library and internet for how to books on basic electronic and sound design as well as figuring out how to operate the curtains and set pieces. The Cullens had quickly become invaluable in this seeming to—as she was coming to expect—know a lot about almost everything. So much that it became frustrating at times to be shown up by them. Thankfully Alice and Emmett were both very hard not to like so she managed to keep forgiving them. It was Edward that she felt the most ire towards, but then again she was still waging her own personal contest with him.

The biggest hiccup had been when Jessica—having successfully managed to snag the leading role—set upon Sarah with a request she never expected. Holding her script out as she read through it, Jessica had been frustrated to find that not a single scene that she would have considered properly romantic. It was with this frustration that she found herself accosting Sarah.

"I wanted to talk to you about this scene at the end," she began in one of the earliest rehearsals, causing Sarah to look up from the technical book she'd been reading. Though it was her job to help out the actors as much as possible, Sarah had the feeling that this was likely going to be very troublesome.

"Ah, right. The climax," Sarah agreed, flipping through her script to see it, even if she could have easily recited it by heart. The words 'You have no power over me' stared back at her, making Sarah sigh. If only life was simple enough that saying those words made it true. She'd come to learn that there were many kinds of power and not all of them could be controlled. "It's a very important scene," she mused quietly.

"It's boring," returned Jessica indignantly, causing Sarah to look back up at her rapidly, an unbelieving look on her face. Boring? Of all the words Sarah could have used to describe that scene, boring was not one of them. How could anyone have looked at the tension and contest held in that final showdown and find it boring?

"Boring?" she repeated, as if unable to make sense of the word. "It's one of the most intense scenes in the play!" This was almost becoming a personal affront to Sarah. Not only had this always been her favorite scene of her favorite play, but as one who'd experienced it more or less first hand, she couldn't imagine anything more exciting.

"That's just it," Jessica cried, gesturing to the dialogue. "There's nothing in the scene to show that it's intense. What would really make it intense would be a kiss. Right…" Jessica paused before pointing to a specific section of her lines definitively. "Right here." Sarah was dumbfounded.

"A kiss?" she repeated, again as though she was doubting her own grasp of English. Jessica simply nodded impatiently. "Why would there be a kiss?" By this point they were attracting a small group of onlookers from among the troupe, but Sarah's attention was completely caught by her confusion. Jessica scoffed as though Sarah had asked the silliest question she'd ever heard.

"Well, she's in love with the king," Jessica responded matter-of-factly. That was the moment that Sarah started laughing. It wasn't polite and as the director she knew she should be taking her actor's requests more seriously, but how else could she have responded to that? No one else joined in her laughter, all looking varying degrees of confused.

"In love with J—him? As if," she said around her laughter. After noticing the quietness of the people around her, Sarah finally stopped laughing to look around at the assembled group. Their confusion wasn't making her feel any better about this.

"She is, though," someone else said at last, leading to a chorus of agreement from the rest. Blinking and silent, Sarah wondered how it could have been possible that all these people saw something in the script that she herself had not. Perhaps they hadn't read it enough times, she thought. After all this book was in some ways the embodiment of her childhood. She was quick to shake her head.

"No, no. It's the Goblin King who's in love with her," she retorted, feeling a little silly to have to explain what was already spelled out in the script. There was a slight cough from somewhere in the assembled audience.

"But it's a story about how she falls in love with him." And then came another round of agreement with people siting how her being in love with him made the final scene much more poignant and how the dream sequence was her own fantasy about loving him and so on until Sarah could take it no longer.

"Fine, I'll write the scene," she said, if only to make them go away. Part of her thought that maybe she'd have to read the play again with fresh eyes in order to see just what it was that these people were talking about, but the idea also made her slightly nervous. If she were to read it and find out they were right…. Sarah could think of nothing more dangerous.

~*~

With that going on, Sarah hadn't noticed the posters advertising the dance nor had she paid much attention to the gossip floating around. Even the occasional dirty looks she'd started to get from Jessica had gone ignored in the stress of so many things. She'd gotten used to tuning things like that out since she hadn't ever had much chance to go anyway. In a town of people who could barely hold a normal conversation with her, who was going to ask her to the dance? And what would be the point of going on her own? It had always been simpler to ignore it. Now that she actually had a fair chance of being able to go and possibly even enjoying it, Sarah was still caught up in everything else. Besides, her bad habit of trying to compare the real world with the Labyrinth seemed to ruin everything. What could compare to the masquerade dream Jareth had given her? It wasn't particularly fair to normal life which could never compare to fantasy, but life wasn't fair. Jareth had taught her that much. It wasn't until Mike wandered over to her table during Biology that Sarah really knew much about the dance.

"Jessica asked me to the dance," he told her with a desperate attempt to sound conversational which failed. Sarah, who'd never been particularly good with identifying when people held a romantic interest in her (even when they repeatedly suggested marriage), smiled at him vaguely and wondered why he was telling her now.

"And you're not happy with that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. For a moment she remembered why she hadn't had many friends even before going through the Labyrinth. The world was huge and filled with wonder and she'd never been good at dealing with interpersonal drama.

"I was just… well you're probably going to ask Cullen, right?" he said, sounding more than slightly bitter at the fact. Sarah wondered where that thought even came from. She'd glanced over towards the empty seat next to her for a moment, but Edward seemed to be later than usual. Quickly she shook her head.

"I actually wasn't planning on going," she told Mike politely, shrugging her shoulders. "There's still a lot to do to set things up. We're opening sooner than it seems." At her comment, Mike looked significantly more embarrassed and Sarah was quick to continue before he said anything about skipping the dance as well. "Which is why I figured I'd make sure I get everything done so you can have a good time at the dance." Accepting that she wasn't going to change his answer, but also a little relieved that she wasn't planning on asking Edward, Mike nodded and made his way back to his seat. It was only a few moments after this that Edward made an appearance, causing Sarah to quirk and eyebrow at him as he sat down.

"You were listening to that, weren't you?" she asked, though feeling rather confident that her suspicions were correct. For his part, Edward looked almost genuinely confused. He'd been too far away to have heard the conversation if he was anyone normal, but Sarah had long since stopped thinking of him as normal.

"Listening to what?" he replied, feigning innocence well enough that Sarah almost began to doubt herself. After a long suspicious look, she gave in, deciding that there wasn't enough proof to say one way or the other. There wasn't particularly a reason for him to care if she was going.

"Mike and I were just discussing the dance, that's all," she said at last, hoping to somehow bait him into saying something to incriminate himself. Then again she supposed that was always what she was trying to do. There was never quite enough evidence to fully support her suspicion or to give her any more information other than that he was not normal.

"Are you going?" Edward asked when Sarah turned away again. Yes, good. That was the question she was fishing for.

"Of course," she responded, nodding happily. Her eyes shifted over to him with the expectation of seeing some kind of confusion or frustration in his features. Edward's smile seemed frozen. Sarah considered that good enough. "We were just talking about who we were planning to go with." It seemed that Edward was getting better at the game, because his expression was hard to read. As much as she enjoyed a challenge, she preferred to win and he was making that far harder.

"You have a date then?" His eyes were probing as he asked, enough for Sarah to be unable to think up a convincing lie. Besides, she had a bad feeling that any lie she told would come back to haunt her in some way. In the end she just shook her head with a smile.

"No, but the day's not over yet, am I right?" Sarah had been the one to start this challenge and she wasn't going to back down and admit she'd be testing him. The fact that she hadn't gotten a definitive answer to her question was hard enough but if she had to back down it would only be that much worse. Actually being thankful for a science class to start was rare for her, but today she was. She was also quick to pack up her things as the bell rang and made it out of the door before the conversation could be picked up again. She didn't know why she had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to be regretting her hasty challenge.

This was proven right immediately after gym when Eric bounded up to her. Sarah was used to his sticking to her, but she had a bad feeling about it today. Giving him a smile that was just a little bit forced, she waited with a sneaking suspicion of what he was going to say. It took her a bit to convince him that no she really wasn't going to the dance. As she finally watched him slump away, Sarah couldn't help but notice some copper colored hair sticking out from the side corridor. He was still too far away to have heard the conversation, but Sarah was pretty sure he was listening all the same.

It was only after he'd caused an actual traffic jam in order to give Tyler a chance to be rejected as well, that Sarah found herself really burning with resentment. Even if she didn't want to admit it, he'd won that round and Sarah was grumbling about it all the way home. It was only much later in the evening that it occurred to Sarah that he'd won by confirming her suspicions in the first place. Sitting on her bed that night, she held the piece of paper with the ever growing list of Cullen oddities. No human could do half the things on this list. If he wasn't human, then what was he?

A light hoot from outside made Sarah drop the list and move to the window. The owl had been coming by off and on for the past month and she didn't know why she always moved to the window when it came, but here she was. "Hello again," she said to the bird. "Still coming by to see me?" She'd taken to calling the creature J in her mind, though by this time she was certain it wasn't Jareth. Or at least… it probably wasn't. For all she knew he could be waging an elaborate practical joke on her. At this point she had settled it down to two options: the goblin had been real and Jareth was toying with her mental state or the goblin was simply in her mind and she was going crazy. Neither seemed very appealing.

"Oh, don't look at me like that, I can't help it," she chided the bird when it ruffled its feathers. Likely it had nothing to do with what she was saying, but Sarah kept at it all the same. "I just can't help but feel that this is all just too easy. There has to be something more to it, right?" J simply hooted, probably to let her know that she was a bit too wrapped up in things if she was reduced to talking to wildlife. Sarah sighed, stepping back from the window. This was the problem, with Jareth around at least she had someone she could talk to about the Labyrinth. Without him she was forced to keep it all inside, a harder burden than it sounded.

Closing her window again, Sarah tried to push the Labyrinth out of her mind as she tried every night. Lately it was getting harder. It had been a week since she'd had a single night free of the place. Most troubling of all was that the main figure himself was absent from every dream, demoted to nothing more than flickers at the corners of her eyes or light chuckles. Was he trying to find her or was she trying to find him. Sarah didn't know anymore.

~*~

The next day continued much as the ones before, though Sarah found herself with quite a bone to pick with her ever more infuriating lab partner. By this point she'd grown to have a grudging soft spot for him since she didn't particularly think he was a bad person, but they'd been antagonizing each other long enough that it still felt like war. When lunch rolled around, Sarah was treated to the very familiar whisper of Jessica in her ear.

"Edward is staring at you again." By this point Sarah really didn't think Jessica needed to keep giving her updates on what Edward was doing, especially since Jessica seemed to think of it less as an intriguing oddity and progressively more as unfair favoritism. Still, it seemed that ignoring Edward seemed to have the effect of being just as offensive as letting herself be friendly with him so there really was no way to win. Sighing slightly, she looked over to the Cullen table, but her reluctance quickly melted away into confusion as Edward wasn't there. For a moment she'd thought he'd magically disappeared again until Jessica's whisper was back. "No, over there." Jessica gestured away from the table Sarah was looking at until Sarah's gaze happened to catch Edward's who was sitting on his own. His immediate response upon noticing her was to crook a finger at her in a gesture which unmistakably told her to come over there.

"I'm not a dog," Sarah mumbled darkly to herself, considering just leaving him alone but Jessica seemed to be in shock at the situation. Sarah was waiting for her to be more against the idea, but it wasn't long before Jessica was hounding her out of her seat and pushing her towards Edward's table. Then again most of the school knew she had some kind of friendship with Edward by this point. It was considered fact that the only reason he joined the play at all was because of Sarah. For her part Sarah had no way to really deny these rumors and just let them be. While Jessica's jealousy of this friendship was strong, the idea that Sarah didn't particularly care about the attention she was getting was even more insulting to her. Watching someone simply ignore their good fortune was far too infuriating to allow, she thought.

"You know, it's almost like you're trying to get them to hate me," Sarah muttered as she reached his table, glancing back to the spot she'd left with a slight huff. Edward seemed particularly amused.

"They are a bit angry with me for stealing you," he told her, but without the slightest note of apology in his tone. Sarah hadn't expected any in the first place, though. Instead she placed her lunch down, sat and took a bite thoughtfully.

"Speaking of angry, what was the deal with the traffic jam yesterday?" she demanded of him. Edward's face was the picture of innocence, though Sarah hardly bought it for a second. Glaring as she waited for answer, the fact that her annoyance only furthered his amusement served to tick her off more.

"You said you were still looking for a date. I was helping you out." The fact that he was rubbing in his win, only made Sarah bristle more. She'd always thought she was playing this game without him knowing a thing about it, but it was comments like these that made her think he was playing just as much.

"How magnanimous," she remarked bitterly, never having been a very graceful loser. Focusing on her lunch, she purposely and obviously ignored him. Even if she was curious to see what kind of expression he had in response to her bitterness, Sarah felt like it would only serve to be even more irritating. She was almost startled when he spoke up again.

"What are you thinking?" he asked, a slight note of frustration in his tone. Sarah didn't bother to look up, continuing through her lunch.

"That you're sort of a jerk," she responded without a thought. Sarah didn't know if she was relieved or annoyed that he was more amused than offended by this remark. Technically she had been sort of trying to offend him.

"In that case, I was wondering," he began in a thoughtful tone, making Sarah actually look up at him, wondering where this segue could possibly take them. "If you didn't already have plans for Saturday… you know, the day of the dance…." If looks could kill, there would not have been an atom of Edward left from the force of her glare. How much more did he really want to rub it in until he was satisfied?

"Don't you dare," she muttered before he could properly finish, causing his eyebrows to rise and a smirk to cross his lips. Had she been thinking more rationally Sarah supposed this was fairer. She had been the one on the mocking side far more often than he had and had pressed every advantage that she could. But life wasn't supposed to be fair, especially not when it had been unfair in her advantage.

"May I finish?" he asked, the smug smirk still on his face. Though having a strong urge to tell him no, Sarah just sighed and nodded her head once in defeat. "If you don't already have plans, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind running me through my lines." Having expected more teasing rather than an actual request, Sarah was silent for a moment, not really processing that he was waiting for an answer. By the time she realized he was looking at her expectedly, Sarah gave the only reply that she could.

"No." The seriousness of the word was what threw Edward. Between how seriously Sarah took her duties as a director and their budding friendship, he'd been fairly certain of a positive reply. But her matter-of-fact tone which implied that even the suggestion itself was comical, left him almost speechless. There had been a point to not auditioning, Sarah was trying to put as much distance between herself and the lines as possible. She'd helped out other actors on occasion but had avoided it as much as possible. Now with the idea of having to roleplay as the heroine and the Goblin King—and with Edward of all people—it was utterly impossible.

"No?" he asked, taken aback. Realizing what a suspicious thing she'd said, Sarah scrambled for a decent enough answer to cover up her hasty refusal.

"We're already so close to opening, I'm sure you don't need my help," was all that she could come up with, frazzled as she was. Of all people she didn't expect Edward to be asking for help. The light smirk that crossed his face in response to her explanation was troubling.

"We're so close to opening and I don't have them memorized yet. Don't you think you should be worried?" Sarah leveled him with a harsh look, but he held it easily. A continued refusal would be questionable, especially since she had helped out others and Sarah had the feeling he wasn't going to let the matter rest unless she said yes. Besides, people still seemed dubious about the fact she wasn't going to the dance and at least this gave her solid plans.

"Fine, if you really can't do it by yourself and need help that badly, I can spare a few hours," she gave in, though making sure it was as uninterested sounding as possible. He nodded at her, apparently willing to make himself seem incompetent in order to get her to do it. There was not a shadow of a doubt in Sarah's mind that he was only pretending. The idea that he had not already memorized the lines to perfection was laughable. "Not too early on Saturday though, I'm going out of town to look at costumes on Friday." Edward's answering smile was dazzling but Sarah was certain there was ulterior motives behind it.

"Then I shall see you Saturday. Eleven?" Nodding in agreement to the time, Sarah paused and gave him a slightly suspicious look. She seemed to level those at him a lot, but Edward gave her plenty to be suspicious about.

"You'll see me a lot sooner than that. Class?" she reminded him. Edward chuckled and shook his head.

"All work and no play is no good for anyone. I'm taking an early weekend." Quirking an eyebrow at him, Sarah wasn't quite sure what to say to that. She wanted to be doubtful and find this comment questionable but after remembering how he'd disappeared after her first day and the other scattered times the Cullens took off without regard to their education, she supposed that this wasn't really out of character.

"In that case, have fun," she told him, looking around as the bell started to ring. By the time she'd looked back down to the table, her tray seemed to have disappeared. Her eyes followed Edward as he carried it away for her. Shrugging to herself, Sarah let it go. She'd always known he was a bit weird.

Biology without Edward was a rather strange experience. Clearly she was getting used to having him around. Why was it that the most troublesome and complicated of people also seemed to be the easiest to get used to having around? Thankfully with the blood typing they were doing, there was enough chaos to drive him out of her mind, if only for a while.


	7. Nothing But a Monster

True to his word, Sarah did not see Edward again for the rest of the week. Friday's classes came and went without a sign of him, admittedly making rehearsal more difficult but they'd muddled through regardless. She barely had time to think about Saturday though as she found herself piling into Jessica's car with Lauren and Angela on their way to Port Angeles to look at costumes as well as dresses for the ball—something Sarah was less excited about but she agreed to regardless. The drive passed agreeably, though Sarah didn't have much to contribute when it came to plans about the dance. She also neglected to mention that Edward had invited her out instead, not wanting to cause more of a commotion than necessary. Besides, saying it aloud also felt like acknowledging that he was beating her again. Sarah didn't know exactly when he started to figure out how to use her words against her as well as he did, but she didn't appreciate it.

When it became apparent that her companions were more interested in finding dresses for the dance than costume hunting, a few hours later, Sarah politely excused herself, mentioning a store down the way she wanted to check out. After making sure she had all their phone numbers saved in case of emergency, Sarah wandered down the block. It was the antique stores that had caught her eye and ultimately thrown her off track. It seemed almost as if she'd finish glancing through one only to have her eye caught by another, leading her further down the street and into the night. It was reaching six in the evening by the time Sarah realized the time and the fact that she was utterly lost. The age of technology was a wonderful thing, however, and Sarah shifted her purchases—both play related and personal—to one hand as she loaded up the GPS on her phone. With the sun only just starting to set, she wandered down the street in the direction she came from, waiting for the program to load.

A group of men was coming towards her the opposite direction, laughing raucously and speaking in tones slurred enough to make it clear they were drunk. Sarah looked up and made eye contact with them, but focused on her phone to get her to the restaurant she was supposed to be meeting her friends at.

"Hey there, babe," called out one of the men, causing Sarah to look up and roll her eyes slightly. Having lived in a safe little neighborhood her whole life, Sarah felt no sense of danger. Her paranoia and concerns extended only to the supernatural world. Having been dealing with fantastic dangers all her life, she was much less aware of the more mundane ones.

"Good evening," she replied to them, nodding her head slightly before looking back down at her phone. The map said there was a quick short cut if she moved down the alley to her right. She took it without thinking much else of it. The sky was slowly darkening and she had to squint to see properly but she didn't hesitate. What danger could there really be in the space between two commonly traveled streets at just past six in the evening.

"Wait," cried out a voice from behind her, and Sarah turned, wondering if she'd dropped something. Instead she found that the group of men were closer now and seemed to have followed her down the alley. For the first time she felt some sense of worry about her situation. "Where are you off to in such a rush?" Sarah actually took a step from them, feeling slightly more hesitant as they followed her action. She knew how to deal with magical villains but when it came to human ones, she doubted that a few words and good friends would be enough to stop them.

"I actually have plans, so I have to go," she said, continuing to back away. They were reaching the midpoint of the alley now and Sarah could see a few scattered people passing by on the other side, though none of them looked her way. She didn't know if they could have even seen her, shrouded in shadow as she was sure the alley was. A hand gripped her arm tightly. Sarah prepared herself to scream.

It was then that both she and the men were temporarily blinded by bright lights burning into the alley. The hand let go in surprise and Sarah wasted no time in moving away from it. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, maybe, but Sarah thought she might rather take her chances with this strangely fortuitous arrival. Even before she heard the voice instructing her to get in, Sarah already had a sneaking suspicion of who it was behind the wheel. With the four men left standing and looking both blinded and as though they had no real idea what it was they were doing there, Sarah felt the car speed off in reverse before she was jolted into the door by the sudden sharp turn. One glance out the window told her that they were moving at speeds far too fast to be safe, but after a glance at Edward's face, she made no comment about it. Sarah didn't believe she'd ever seen anyone that angry.

The silence was only broken by the rumbling of the engine as Sarah tried to think of what she wanted to say. What was he doing here? How did he even know where to find her? Or that she was in trouble? Part of her wanted to make an off-hand joke about him stalking her. But the actual questions this situation posed only increased the longer she thought about it. How had he managed to maneuver his car both in and out of that alley perfectly? How could he control the car at the speed it was going now? Why didn't he have any questions for her? At long last, Sarah knew there was really only one thing she could say in this situation.

"Thank you." The words came out quietly and almost impossible to hear, but she had to say them. Though looking no less murderous, Edward's hands loosened their grip slightly on the steering wheel and she watched the speedometer slowly fall back into a reasonable speed until finally dropping all the way down completely. She had questions—dear god did she have questions—but she asked none of them as she watched Edward slowly get himself back together. Their game of secrets was on break right now, that much was obvious without question. Carefully she waited, wondering if there was any more she could do.

"Distract me, please," came the sudden request, throwing Sarah off guard. She waited for a moment to see if there was anything more to what he was going to say, but nothing else came.

"Uh… last night I had a nightmare about clocks," she said, not sure why that was the first thing to come to mind, but she said it anyway. With his head leaning onto his hands which were still clutching the steering wheel, Sarah couldn't quite see his expression to know if it was working.

"Clocks?" he asked, asking for more information. For the first time Sarah didn't care how much information about herself she was giving away. It didn't matter if Edward thought she was crazy or even he started to put together pieces of the puzzle.

"Yeah, clocks. They were flying and chasing me while chiming over and over again," she explained. "I kept trying to tell them that it wasn't time yet and that I had a few hours left, but they weren't listening. Which is weird because clocks are the nicest piece of furniture. You know why?" Her lips quirked slightly as she asked him the question, trying to engage him in the hopes it would help him keep his mind off what was driving him quite that mad.

"Why?" he asked, still sounding tired but much less angry. Sarah considered that progress.

"They're always willing to give you the time of day," she finished. Fully aware that her joke was bad, Sarah congratulated herself on being able to think of one anyway in this situation. Edward's shoulders shook slightly, leaving Sarah to consider it a success. It wasn't long after that when he managed to straight up, looking far less scary than he had before.

"Better?" she asked him after a moment. He finally turned over to look at her, his expression much more serious than she'd seen it in a while. Probably not since the van accident.

"Not really," he replied, making Sarah give him a weak smile.

"Me either." Sarah didn't know if she was trying to reassure him that it was okay that he wasn't alright or that she simply needed to admit those words to herself, but they came out nonetheless, making her finally aware of the fact that she was shaking. The thought actually embarrassed her. With all she'd been through, Sarah liked to believe that she was brave. This didn't really make her less brave, she tried to remind herself. Anyone would likely be scared in situations like that. With her words hanging in the air, they sat in companionable but introspective silence until a slight buzz came from Sarah's pocket. She didn't have to look at her phone to know what the text was.

"I'm late!" she realized, her eyes fixing on the clock which now read quarter to seven. Edward seemed to come back to life as she spoke, starting up the car again. "I was supposed to meet Jessica, Lauren and Angela for dinner." She offered the explanation and destination to Edward who nodded and quickly had them turned around and headed back into town. Sarah hadn't even noticed they'd driven so far out of it until that moment. Eying Edward carefully, she made a mental note to add all the events of tonight to her list of oddities.

The girls were waiting outside the restaurant when Edward pulled up in front of it. Sarah was quick to step out of the car and go over to them, profusely apologizing for being late. Edward had followed her out, but was waiting by the car, either to give her space or to make sure he'd fully calmed down, Sarah wasn't sure. She was pretty sure she'd heard Jessica mumble something that sounded like "of course she's with Edward," but Sarah pretended not to hear it. Only after the others had mentioned they'd already eaten did Edward step forward.

"In that case I'd be happy to join you for dinner, Bella," he suggested. The comment was said far more brightly than Sarah had expected out of him and she took that to mean their temporary pause was over. In which case dinner might be the perfect opportunity. "And I'll make sure she gets home safely." This comment was directed at the others who were quick to leave Sarah in Edward's care. If she wasn't so interested in a chance at having a private chat with the guy, Sarah might have been a little bit offended. As it was, she just waved them off before turning and offering a skeptical look at Edward who gestured in front of him towards the building. Following his request without argument for once, Sarah led the way inside.

"Table for two?" he asked the hostess who was looking far too awestruck at him to do much of anything at first. Edward continued to grin winningly at her, continuing to fluster the poor girl even more. Part of Sarah wanted to laugh since she doubted that he was doing it unconsciously. No, Sarah was fairly certain Edward always knew what he was doing.

"Maybe somewhere a little more private if possible," Sarah suggested with a polite smile, causing both the hostess and Edward to look at her. Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "I'm pretty sure we have some things we need to talk about." It was then that Edward caught on to what she was saying and found himself nodding.

"Indeed we do," he responded in a way that confirmed Sarah's fear that he knew more about her than she wanted him to. But she kept smiling anyway because she was pretty sure the reverse was also true. "If you wouldn't mind." With the dazzling smile turned back to the hostess, she could do nothing but accept, managing to secure them a booth in the corner of an almost entirely empty room. After giving their drink orders, the pair found themselves alone again.

"So," Sarah began, looking over at him carefully. This was it, the moment of truth. Now all that was left was to figure out the way to word her thoughts and suspicions in a way that he couldn't deny them, a harder task than it sounded. Mostly she was hoping to get him to reveal his hand first so she'd know just how much he had against her. Edward didn't seem to be quite on the same page, however.

"You should eat," he said, holding her menu up to her and waiting for her to take it. When Sarah looked like she was going to argue, he shook his head. "Order first and then we'll talk." His tone brooked no argument and Sarah supposed it didn't hurt to take a little more time to figure out how to bring up the subject. After all, if she was wrong—which she was certain she was not—it would be a hard comment to take back without a lot more explanation than she'd like to give. Lost in thought, Sarah hardly paid attention to the menu. When the waitress returned with their drinks, Sarah picked the first thing that sounded decent and handed her menu over. When Edward declined a meal, she raised her eyebrows.

"Not hungry?" she asked him. Edward looked amused at the question, something Sarah filed away for future reflection. Had she ever seen him eat? It was coming up on two months since she'd met him but Sarah couldn't remember seeing him so much as chew a stick of gum.

"Not particularly," came Edward's amused response. Sarah wanted to ask him more, but by now he could tell by her expression when that was the case as much as she could tell when he was going to start fishing for more answers, and cut her off. "You said you wanted to talk. About what?" Sarah scoffed at that question. He knew as well as she did what they had to talk about. They'd been skirting around the subject for ages, slowly trying to hack away what little information they could in order to get the upper hand.

"As fun as it's been, I'm pretty sure we both have some theories we'd like to get out into the open." Edward stopped pretending not to understand then, looking at her more seriously but still with an amused tilt to his mouth.

"You have theories?" he asked, making Sarah want to actually slap a hand to her face. What did he think she'd been doing this whole time if it wasn't collecting theories? He grinned at her. "I'd love to hear those."

"I bet you would," Sarah retorted, reaching for her glass of water. They were getting close now and she could feel actual nerves building. Her mouth was going dry as she waited for the right time to spring her comment. She needed to give it all the dramatic flair she could in order to make this perfect. "Don't you have some of your own?"

"They're not really theories. They're facts." His smug tone made Sarah all the more determined to get him to be the one to say it first. She was certain he couldn't possibly know about Jareth, at least not enough to be this certain—unless he himself knew of the man but Sarah tried not to think about that—so she chose to believe that her theory would knock his facts out of the water.

"Oh?" she inquired, taking a sip and pretending not to be interested or concerned. Edward still looked impossibly smug.

"I know you've been lying to everyone," Edward commented as he watched her take a sip. Sarah froze for a moment before carefully setting the glass back down on the table. The way he said that filled her with more concern than she'd been expecting.

"You're not really one to talk," she responded. Suddenly she could feel it. This was her chance. This was the moment when she could finally say what she'd been silently thinking for more than a month. Even with her mounting excitement she let Edward go first. She had the feeling it would be all the more dramatic that way.

"You're not from Phoenix," was his comment, causing Sarah to raise her eyebrows, not even going to make an attempt at denying it. She thought she'd been doing better lately in keeping up with her disguise but it seems she was wrong. Then again not being from Phoenix was still a better secret than she'd thought he'd dug up on her. And it made her following line all the more dramatic. Making sure to maintain eye contact, Sarah actually laughed.

"At least I'm human." The chill that followed these words was sudden and almost made Sarah drop her eye contact from Edward as his gaze had lost any trace of amusement in the banter they'd been trading. If he had denied it, Sarah might have actually been able to have been convinced that she was entirely wrong, but his cold stare and silence only proved that her guess had been dead right. It was this conviction that allowed her to hold his gaze.

The food was perfectly well timed then and though the waitress this time seemed to sense that the atmosphere was not good and didn't make even the slightest attempt to try and engage Edward. It was probably for the best, Sarah noted, though she didn't take her eyes off of Edward's to see exactly what expression the waitress was making. Finally breaking eye contact to look down at the food, it took Sarah a minute to remember what she'd even ordered. Lasagna. Not her favorite but right now it would do. Taking a thoughtful bite, she waited to see if Edward was going to try and deny it. Still he said nothing.

"I don't know what you actually are though," Sarah continued conversationally when it became clear he either wasn't interested in starting or didn't know how to start the conversation back up again. "I hadn't gotten that far, and it seemed like it would be almost impossible to piece together since there's no saying how much of lore there would be or how accurate it was." She peeked over at Edward as she took another bite but still there was nothing. After another few bites, Sarah decided she should try again, only to have him finally speak up.

"How long have you known?" His voice was quiet, almost deadly so and Sarah actually felt slightly concerned for the first time. Their interactions over the past month had led her to believe that, no matter what he was, Edward wasn't a bad person. Now he was reminding her more of that first meeting they'd had.

"After the van accident I started to seriously suspect it." Edward's face was awash with defeat. Inwardly Sarah couldn't help but cheer. Their little game was over and this was clearly a definitive win for her. For a brief moment, Sarah allowed herself the fantasy of thinking herself as the champion for the humans, winning victories over magical beings despite having no special powers herself. It was energizing. "You really could have hidden it better, you know." Sarah was unable to resist the urge to rub in her victory just a little bit more. "Speed. Excessive ability. Able to move silently. Color changing eyes. Can stop a moving van without being flattened." Sarah ticked them off on her fingers, looking up to see Edward's eyes boring into her.

"And this… doesn't bother you?" Edward asked, causing Sarah to look at him with confusion. She'd been so focused on being right she didn't really think too much about what it would really mean if Edward was magical. Then again, she had plenty of friends who weren't human so she could hardly be discriminating. Hoggle and Ludo may not have been human, but she still considered them to be both kind and trustworthy. She didn't see why she had to consider Edward differently.

"Not really, no," she answered honestly. Edward's stare grew more intense, looking as though he was struggling to try and get some kind of information out of her. "It doesn't really change who you are as a person, does it?" At that comment, Edward's look of intense concentration faded and he was just looking at her as though a new thought occurred to him.

"You're in shock," he said, nodding as though it was the answer to all his questions. He pushed the soda he'd ordered towards her. Sarah looked down at herself and then back up at him.

"I'm pretty sure that's you," she commented off-hand, snickering a little bit. Picking up a slice of bread from the basket between them, Sarah waited for several moments if he had anything more to say. It seemed he did not. "Are you planning on telling me what you are?" she wondered aloud. Sarah didn't know whether she expected him to tell her or not. He still seemed dumbfounded by her lack of surprise.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Edward, looking tenser and tenser by the minute. Clearly he wasn't comfortable talking about this but they needed to get the elephant out of the room if they were ever going to interact normally again. He needed to know that she really wasn't bothered.

"Call it casual curiosity. You don't run into magical creatures every day," Sarah replied, though inwardly she realized that she did in fact run into them daily for the past two years almost. Deciding to keep that little piece of information to herself, she waited for an answer.

"Magical?" Edward repeated with a snort. "I'm a monster." When Sarah laughed, Edward's eyes flashed back to her. He could not understand her reactions at all. He was expecting—even perhaps wanting—to be feared and hated but Sarah seemed to treat it as nothing special.

"A monster?" she repeated incredulously. "Hardly. I don't know your definition of monster, but mine doesn't involve having them save my life. Twice for that matter. Besides, you're hardly the most frightening thing I've ever seen. Or the most intimidating person." A flash of annoyance rose to his eyes, though an actual smirk appeared on his face, albeit a very dark one.

"You shouldn't have said that," he told her, a bit threateningly. For a moment Sarah was unsettled, but he did not have logic supporting his threat enough to make her very worried.

"So you saved my life twice at risk of exposing yourself but you're going to put me in danger to prove a point?" His mouth twitched again, but this time the smile was calmer and more amused.

"Perhaps not," he responded, leaning back in his seat at last. The bill arrived before either of them had a chance to say anything more. Sarah let him pay without complaint, thinking she'd probably messed with him enough for one night. The walk to the car and first half of the drive was completed in silence. The burning curiosity to find out what exactly Edward was filled Sarah's mind but she didn't know how to broach the subject again. Somehow she doubted Edward was quite in the mood to play games, especially with this subject. Eventually she decided to just be straight with him. It would drive her mad otherwise.

"What kind of monster?" she said, breaking the silence. Edward shifted from his locked gaze on the road to look over at her. His expression was hard to read and Sarah couldn't tell if she was crossing any lines by saying this. Edward's answer gave her some relief.

"Vampire," he told her, keeping his eye on her as though he was still waiting for her to show some kind of negative reaction. Sarah just pondered that thought. Of all the creatures she did believe in, vampires had never been among the list. Then again neither had goblins for a long time.

"That explains why you don't eat," was her reply, making Edward's lips pull into a frown again. He clearly wanted her to show some kind of fear but Sarah thought that might be because he'd thought it impossible for any human to have simply accept this. Sarah had never been exactly normal when it came to these things though. "Can I ask more about vampires?" Seeing as how Edward still seemed uncomfortable with her acceptance, Sarah made a point to ask permission, though she had more than a few questions rattling around in her mind. His slight nod was enough for them to start pouring out. Questions about everything from crosses and blood to eternal youth and the rest of the Cullens. And, of course, sunlight.

"I've seen you in the day, though. Is that just a myth?" By this point Edward had relaxed enough to chuckle at her inquisitiveness.

"It's hard to explain. Shall I show you?" His suggestion threw Sarah a little off guard as she thought he'd be more reserved about this kind of thing and one glance out the window confirmed why it was impossible.

"Now?" she asked dubiously, causing Edward to laugh and shake his head.

"We're supposed to get some sun tomorrow," he informed her. Sarah gave him a slightly blank look. Tomorrow? It seemed her thoughts were written on her face this time however as Edward smirked over at her. "You are still planning on helping me with my lines, aren't you?" That's when Sarah remembered, and she found herself nodding without realizing it. Of course she still really didn't want to do the actual line reading, but the added thought of getting to see a bit of magic at work left her too curious to refuse. Her response made him grin as he parked the car, leaving Sarah only just then realizing they'd arrived back at Charlie's.

"Tomorrow then," she agreed, moving to unbuckle herself. Before she'd managed to even reach for the door handle, the door was open with Edward standing beside it. Sarah had really expected him to stay upset about the reveal for longer, but if anything he just seemed more liberated to use his abilities in front of her.

"Sweet dreams," he said as she moved towards the door. She smiled at him and wished him the same, though inwardly she couldn't help but add 'not likely'. It had been a while since she'd had dreams that could be considered sweet. With Edward watching as she opened the door though, Sarah kept up a smile and cheerfully waved him away. From there she went straight to her room, only pausing to quickly let Charlie know she was home, and dropped heavily into bed.

"From goblins to vampires, huh?" she mumbled to herself, staring up at the ceiling. "Sarah Williams, you sure can pick them." She'd come to Forks to escape and also for her own safety. At least that's what she'd told herself at the time. But, despite what she'd said to Edward, were vampires really any safer than goblins or even their king? The ceiling held no answers for her, but she continued to stare at it for some time, only stopping when she remembered that she had plans for the next day.

"Well, at least they're not as annoyingly glittery," Sarah remarked to herself, and tried to leave it at that. When it came down to it, vampires were her current concern. Goblins had become a thing of the past and she doubted she'd be seeing any again any time soon.


	8. Miss Me?

"You have got to be kidding me," Sarah muttered to herself, mouth agape with horror at the sight before her. She'd seen plenty of things that were hard to believe or that challenged the very limits of even her own boundless imagination, but this was the first thing that made her want to simply turn around and pretend she'd seen nothing.

Of course, Sarah supposed, she really should have seen this coming. After starting the day by being awakened by a terrified scream, only to discover it had been her own, Sarah could hardly say that this was working out to be one of her favorite days. Having somewhat expected to have a respite from Labyrinth dreams and maybe have some vampire ones instead in light of her conversation the previous night, Sarah stared up at the ceiling that morning in defeat. It seemed no matter what happened in her present—even something as impossible as vampires—her subconscious still couldn't help but fixate on her past. The nightmare that night had been the worst one yet, involving cleaners chasing her down an endless hallway until the inevitable dead end. No matter how much she searched for a false wall, somehow Sarah knew that there was simply no escape. There was no escape from the cleaners in the dream or from thoughts of the Labyrinth, it seemed. As always, Jareth stayed blissfully—and frustratingly—absent.

Continuing to lie there and stare up at the ceiling, Sarah was hardly aware of the passage of time until her phone vibrated. For a long moment she ignored it, not really sure if she was ready to be shaken from her thoughts just yet. Finally curiosity got the better of her and she leaned over to grab it, the screen lighting up to show Edward's name. It was only then that Sarah remembered. Bolting out of bed and seeing it was already ten past eleven, she frantically began pulling clothes out of her closet and darting to the bathroom. After tripping no less than seven times and managing to jab herself in her eye as well as stub her toe, Sarah finally considered herself as looking presentable. At least presentable enough since she was already making Edward wait. Her phone had buzzed a few more times but she'd just sent a quick message 'Five minutes please' and hoped that would be enough. It really was more like twelve by the time she managed to grab her bag and walk out the door.

It was a relief to see that Edward was still standing there, leaning against his car and smiling as he noticed her. Sarah thought she could see something complicated about his smile, but she just greeted him with embarrassed breathlessness.

"I was starting to think that you weren't going to come out," he commented, making Sarah actually flush a little. Rubbing the back of her neck, she tried to come up with an excuse that wasn't quite as rude as telling him that she'd forgotten.

"I overslept," was what she finally came up with, causing him to nod as though she had confirmed something for him. For a moment he seemed very serious as he looked at her, but the expression softened into a smile before long as he reached over to flip a wild strand of bedhead behind her ear.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want to," Edward suggested quietly, still smiling but looking as though he was holding himself back from saying more. Sarah quirked an eyebrow at him. Of course she hadn't exactly been excited at the prospect when he'd suggested it but she'd already made the commitment. Besides, Sarah still had her questions about him, though perhaps not bursting with the same curiosity as she had been the night before. Admittedly she was more tired than usual.

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked, clicking her tongue as though he'd suggested something preposterous. "And you can't leave me hanging on the answer from last night." Edward's silence confused her. He had that same frustrated look as he often did when looking at her, this time looking as though he was keen to argue. Sarah wondered if he was looking for an excuse to get out of it. In that case he probably would have left when she'd ignored him for so long though, wouldn't he? Just as she was about to suggest that he didn't have to, Edward sprung back into action, pulling the passenger door open for her.

"Speaking of," he said abruptly, glancing up at the sky slightly dubiously, "we'd better make a start before the clouds clear up." Curious what exactly that meant, Sarah didn't hesitate to get in, not even surprised this time as he appeared in the driver's seat before she'd even managed to get buckled. Sarah simple shook her head at it.

"A start to where?" It occurred to her as they started moving that Edward had never mentioned where he meant for them to practice lines—something she was hoping they could forget about in light of the reveal of his vampirism—though clearly he had a place in mind. Perhaps Sarah ought to have been worried given that she'd only met Edward fairly recently and he was—by his own definition—a monster. More importantly, however, Edward was a friend. She didn't believe he had an honest intent to harm her, despite what he seemed to expect her to assume.

"My favorite place," Edward responded, looking at her from the corner of his eye. Sarah's eyes widened at the thought. Somehow this was all making her feel progressively worse about completely forgetting all about him for the entire morning. Still, she'd make the effort now. Someday she'd get the Labyrinth out of her head and find a way to function again. Someday.

When Edward said his favorite place, Sarah had spent a lot of the car ride trying to figure out what that might be. She didn't doubt that it would be private, but her mind started filling with images of fancy clubs or high scale hotels so when they pulled off to a lot beside a forest trail, Sarah glanced around in confusion. As always he beat her to the door, though this time she'd been too distracted to try and race him and stepped out to look around.

"It's this way," he said, gesturing down the trail that stretched out in front of them. It looked as though it was infrequently—if ever—used and Sarah noticed not another car in sight. If nothing else she was right about the privacy, she supposed.

In all honesty, Sarah couldn't remember the last time she'd been for a proper hike in the forest, but that didn't change the fact that she loved every moment. Edward's few attempts at conversation as they walked were quickly ended as it became obvious that Sarah's attention was no longer on him. Instead she felt as though she was just a girl again, dancing in the park and playing make believe with the creatures to be found there. Her one and only frustration was her apparent lack of attention or coordination which made her trip on nearly every exposed root or large twig. It reached the point where Edward had taken to offering her his hand whenever they reached any medium sized obstacle. It was only with great reluctance that Sarah admitted that it was helpful.

After a few miles of hiking and daydreaming, Sarah's breath was fully taken away by the conclusion. Stepping out into a brightly lit meadow, she actually gasped for a moment before dashing out without any concern for her own safety. It might not have been the largest or most impressive clearing she'd ever seen, but she loved it immediately anyway. Twirling around in the sunlight, Sarah beamed brightly and even laughed, enjoying the feelings of sunlight and freedom. While she couldn't quite pinpoint exactly when she'd stopped giving herself the freedom to dream like this, Sarah felt like she was bringing back a part of herself that she'd forgotten. It wasn't hard for her to imagine why Edward loved this place. Edward!

Quickly Sarah turned around, realizing she'd gone and forgotten all about him again. It took her a long moment to find him as he seemed to be hugging tightly to the shade of the trees. Looking up at the sky, Sarah saw that there was not a cloud in sight. Learning about vampires and sunlight seemed much less important to her now that she'd seen this place, but he wanted to show her this. Making eye contact with him, Sarah nodded, not sure if he was waiting to see if she was ready but letting him know that she was anyway. Then slowly—ever so slowly—Edward stepped out into the sun.

"You have got to be kidding me." And so Sarah's already complicated and unlucky day just seemed to be getting worse. The meadow had left her with the hope that things were going to get better but that was quickly pushed aside as sunlight first touched Edward's skin. For a long time Sarah just thought that she was dreaming. It seemed more like something out of one of her nightmares than reality. Her mouth stayed agape and her eyes were fixed on him with disbelief so long that he'd managed to walk up to her side before she'd even gotten control of herself.

"Not what you were expecting?" Edward asked, looking slightly confused himself but seeming to accept the fact that she didn't find it particularly pleasing. Sarah supposed that to others it might be beautiful. She simply wanted to know what it was with magical beings and glitter. After living for two years with the stuff almost always seeming to cover every surface of her room, Sarah couldn't look at it with anything more than horror as memories of hours of scrubbing, vacuuming and washing came back to her in a flash.

"No," she choked out, but she didn't really think it was a strong enough word. "I'm just… I'm going to need a minute to get used to this." Edward accepted this easily, nodding again as though more and more pieces were falling into place in whatever puzzle he was working out in his head. Sarah didn't even try to figure him out, her eyes shifting a bit to his left so she could avoid looking at him for the moment.

In the end Sarah had moved them into the shade. Even if she appreciated that he was answering her questions and showing her another secret of his, this was one that she felt she would have felt better not knowing. He hadn't questioned her about this discomfort amazingly and she'd avoided the topic, though when he'd pulled out a copy of the script, Sarah almost wished they could go back to the sparkling. She'd been banking on the hope that he'd forgotten in the midst of her finding out his secret. It seemed that he had not.

"You're very hard to figure out," he said after they'd run through several scenes—all of which he'd recited perfectly. He was lying back on the grass with his head propped up on his hand. Sarah, who had been expecting him to go on to the next line, looked up from her copy with a furrowed brow. Not particularly wanting to respond, Sarah paused. What could she say to that? To deny it would be implying that she really had nothing to hide which they both knew to be a lie but Sarah didn't really want to accept it either as it seemed like a comment specifically meant to journey down pathways she didn't want to explore.

"Speak for yourself," was what she eventually decided on, not realizing she'd fallen directly back into her mindset of playing the game. Even if Sarah considered it as he own win, that didn't mean she wanted to hand him any victories. Edward just smirked.

"But you've already figured me out," he reminded her pointedly, making Sarah slightly frown. She wasn't getting away that easily it seemed. There was much more to Edward than simply being a vampire. There was a lot more to anyone than one trait, but she did know far more about him than she'd given away about herself. Sarah couldn't even say that she had more reason to hide than he did since she was certain that his reveal was more dangerous than hers might be. Even so, it didn't make her want to give up more than she had to.

"You can ask a question if you want." That was as far towards compromise as Sarah was going to go. The obvious use of the singular form of the word was not lost on either of them but Edward nodded anyway, either planning to find a loophole or knowing this was the best he was going to get. With deep breaths, Sarah prepared herself for his question.

"This play," he started, causing the blood to freeze in Sarah's veins and her heart to beat erratically. Edward looked as though he was about to say something more but stopped himself as his brow furrowed. For a moment Sarah wondered if he could hear the beating of her heart. If she had to hazard a guess, she'd imagine that it was likely. Lying would be no easy feat. "Do you hate it?" Her heartbeat was still elevated, but the question itself was not the one she'd been fearing. His question was more complicated, sure, but he didn't seem to have caught on that she was, for all intents and purposes, the girl in the story.

"That's… complicated?" Her voice rose at the end as though to mimic a question. What more really was there to say? When it finally came to giving an answer, she spoke with careful deliberation, as though choosing each word with the utmost care. "I suppose you could say that. Why?" Her last word was laced with enough suspicion to likely cement whatever doubts he'd formed in his mind about her attachment to the play.

"You try your best to avoid it, even while we're working on the play. You sometimes look as though you're uncomfortable even talking about the subject." Sarah blanched a little, having thought she'd been a little more subtle. No one else had noticed. At least, not that she knew of. They were enthusiastic enough to make up for her own hesitation. Sarah was about to open her mouth to agree with his statement when Edward continued. "But when you do talk about it, you talk about it with a passion that people can only muster for their most beloved things." Did she really? Sarah didn't really want to think about the ramifications of that statement. She chose to ignore it.

"It used to be my favorite," she said at last, sighing as she admitted the fact. "Now… well now it's associated with some memories that I think I'd rather forget." Looking down at the ground, Sarah absently picked at the grass by her hands if only for something to do. She glanced up at Edward briefly and thought she saw the beginnings of a question forming. Panic drove her to quickly add another comment. "And ones I'm not ready to talk about." That was only partially true. Sarah would have no problem talking about those memories with someone who'd believe her and who'd understand, but she doubted it would be easy to find any such person. The memories weren't bad, they were mixed up in so many emotions that Sarah was almost afraid to even touch them. Her answer wouldn't spare her forever, she knew. Edward was not the type to forget and eventually he'd ask her again. But perhaps by then she'd have moved on or maybe she'd even be ready to talk about them with him. Only time would tell.

"Should we stop here then?" he asked, for once stepping back from the topic, though not particularly pleased to be doing so. Sarah nodded, but paused mid action as she looked down at the scene again.

"We can finish this scene," she told him, realizing they were only a few lines from the end anyway. "It's the climax and probably the most important one in the play so we have to make sure it's perfect." After all Edward, for all his perfect diction and memorization, was not Jareth. No matter how many times she'd heard him say the lines in rehearsal, they never felt as though they rang true enough. Edward agreed. Pushing his script to the side, he sat up again in front of her. She didn't have to wait long for him to fall back into his lines, all the while he kept eye contact with her. In all fairness he really would have made a great actor, but Sarah didn't feel her heart stirring in the least. Not like when…. Sarah shook her head, she would not let Jareth cloud her mind again when he wasn't even here.

Edward was looking at her expectantly, Sarah noticed, and she realized she'd lost track of his lines as he'd been going through them. Thankfully she could have said her own in her sleep and they fell easily from her lips.

"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom as great..."

And then, Sarah paused. For the first time when saying these lines she didn't have to think what the follow up would be. The words sprung to her mind faster than her own name at this point, but even so with the bright amber eyes of Edward staring at her, the sound simply wouldn't pass her lips. The idea of reducing the words she'd used to save herself and her brother and had been clinging to for so long as just one more line in a play left her cold. It almost felt as though she was mocking them. Those words meant so much to her and to use them in this situation felt almost as if it was disrespectful.

Noticing her hesitation, Edward continued to hold eye contact with her. He seemed slightly hesitant in his own right as though he was mulling something over in his head. Maybe he was going to press her for answers anyway. Maybe he was coming up with his own set of theories. Sarah couldn't say. But she knew she was going to have to either say the words or tell him that she couldn't continue. That was when he kissed her.

It wasn't until later that Sarah remembered that a kiss had been added to the scene at that particular spot, so in the moment she was awash with confusion and frozen in place. The combination between the shock and simply not knowing what to do in the face of her first kiss, Sarah could do nothing until Edward himself pulled back. For a long time Sarah blinked at him.

"What are you thinking?" Edward asked, a reoccurring question she'd noticed. Honestly Sarah didn't even know what she was thinking herself, leaving her to give him a helpless shrug.

"I…. Why do you always want to know so badly?" The question was a bit more accusing than Sarah meant it to be, but she needed a moment to collect herself. Vaguely she remembered editing the scene and adding the kiss there, but it didn't mean she was any less taken off guard by it. As far as strange things went on this day, Sarah fully expected that to take the cake. She ought to have known not to underestimate how strange this day could really get. Edward seemed to take care with how he worded his response.

"Some vampires have special abilities beyond our normal… advantages." He seemed to say the word with great distaste as though he used it for lack of a better one. Sarah just sat and listened without response, not even sure what response she was supposed to have. "Things like… mind reading for example." That was enough to shake her out of her stupor.

"Mind reading?" she demanded loudly, in a tone that was blatantly accusing and angry. Of all the things he could have said, Sarah doubted anything would have been more offensive than this. Admittedly not thinking in her most logical state, she lost herself to emotion and glared at him, shifting back slightly. It wasn't disgust or fear, just the frustration of knowing she'd been toyed with for all this time. There was no way he couldn't know about Jareth and the Labyrinth. "Of all the…. Seriously? So you've been reading my mind this whole time? And then what? You thought it would be fun to play around with me? That's not f…. It's not…." Sarah bit her tongue in the effort to stop herself from finishing those statements. Her near slip only added to her own embarrassment. Edward stopped her with just two words.

"Not yours. I can't read yours." Finding herself calming down slightly, though not sure if she believed him, Sarah settled back down in her seat.

"Why not?" It was still more of a petulant demand rather than a question, something she mentally hit herself for. Maybe it was the meadow or maybe the all too familiar lines from the script, but Sarah was feeling like she had been as a bratty pre-teen than she had in years. Edward shrugged.

"I was sort of hoping you could tell me," he admitted with a chuckle, though the sideways look he gave her suggested that he did still have some hope of that outcome. For the life of her, Sarah couldn't think of any reason. In most cases she could explain the bizarre circumstances surrounding her, but this was not one. There was no choice but for her to deny him an answer.

It wasn't long after this that they began packing up to go when a growl from Sarah's stomach reminded them both that one of them still had pressing human needs. Sarah had expected him to start up the car and head back to Charlie's as soon as they'd gotten in, but he seemed to hesitate slightly, looking over at her.

"Would you like to have dinner with me?" The suggestion caught her slightly off guard again, but that seemed to be the trend with most things today. And it would save Sarah the chore of cooking. Before she could agree, however, Edward clarified. "Esme has mentioned she thinks it's unfair that the rest of us have all gotten a chance to meet you while she hasn't. She wanted me to invite you to dinner." From what she could remember of the gossip involving the Cullens, Esme was Carlisle's wife. Especially given that Sarah could think nothing but good things about Carlisle at this point, she was more than a little curious to meet this final member of the family. It hadn't been a lot of deliberation before she was nodding.

"You don't have to force yourself," Edward told her quickly in response to her nod. "I know you're not completely comfortable with this yet…." His words left Sarah confused. She tried to think exactly what he could mean about what. The only thing that could come to mind was the kiss and she wondered if it had meant anything more than just part of the scene. The idea that he could read minds left her slightly self-conscious of this thought and she tried to shut it down as soon as possible.

"Comfortable with what?"

"With vampires." Sarah snorted. Of all the things he could have said, she thought that one had to be the most ridiculous. Hadn't she already proved several times over that it didn't bother her? She wasn't sure where he was getting that impression from and it must have been obvious on her face. "You were acting weirdly all day…." Sarah was already shaking her head.

"It's just been a weird day," she told him, sighing a bit. "But I'd love to meet Esme." That seemed to be all the encouragement needed, despite some skepticism in his expression. When her stomach growled yet again, Sarah found that her main concern was simply whether or not vampires were capable of cooking edible food.

On the car ride to his house, they'd somehow ended up on the conversation of the play again. There were too many topics with Edward that Sarah was trying to avoid and she was too tired to juggle all of them so she simply let it be. In all honesty it was nice to talk about the Labyrinth again anyway, even if she was talking about it as some kind of fictional world.

"What do you suppose a goblin looks like?" Edward asked her, forcing Sarah to bite her cheek for avoid chuckling. Questions like this were complicated to answer but they still left her with the tiniest of smirks on her face as she answered them with complete honesty and still gave away nothing.

"I've always thought they'd be sort of cute," she responded, earning her a raised eyebrow from Edward. They'd pulled up to the house—another sight which had taken Sarah's breath away, though not so much as the meadow—and made their way to the house.

"Cute?" he repeated, though not looking as shocked as he might have. After all this was the same girl who'd told a vampire to his face that he was not the most threatening thing she'd seen. Edward would not go so far as to call her crazy but she was definitely a unique sort of person. "In that case, I wish I could see a goblin right now," Edward jokingly said before Sarah could stop him, but she definitely tried. The moment the words 'I wish' had fallen from his lips she'd opened her mouth to let out a cry, wanting to cut him off or drown him out or whatever she could do to stop the words from being said. It was much too late now. She froze in the entry way, unable to move or to speak. The rest of the vampires were standing there and she knew she should make more of an effort to acknowledge them, but paranoia filled her. She had no way of knowing whether or not those words would even work. Maybe the goblin king only stole little children. Maybe he only listened to Sarah. It was likely he didn't answer every wish. Even so, the words wish and goblins together filled Sarah with terror, enough so that the vampires all looked at her with concern. After a minute, Sarah took a deep breath, telling herself to relax. A minute had passed and nothing had happened. Surely nothing would. That faint smell of peaches and magic was nothing more than her imagination.

Jasper's growl was the first one to indicate that Sarah wasn't merely imagining it, the other Cullens quickly snapping to attention as well. Underneath the growls, Sarah could faintly make out the light sound of little feet clicking on the tile floor. The Cullens were able to pick out exactly where the sound was coming from almost immediately but only Sarah knew exactly what to look for. By the time the small grey little creature came barreling out into the middle of the room, Sarah could barely find it in herself to be surprised.

Jasper was the first to react, seeming to move on instinct as he dove for the little creature. Even vampire reflexes couldn't help him against the creature's small size and lack of common sense. Rather than trying to get away, it turned immediately towards Jasper, managing to slip under his dive and come out the other side where it ran straight into a woman Sarah did not know, but assumed to be Esme, despite skittering attempts to stop. The room was awash in confusion as the vampires were at a loss of what they were even trying to capture. By the time Esme had even processed she'd been run into, the goblin was up again and dashing as fast as it could away. Sarah felt Edward try to get her out of the way, and she obligingly stepped aside out of his reach, but waited with a bit of a smirk as the goblin dashed straight through Edward's legs towards her anyway. As soon as it reached her, small hands clasped tightly to her pant leg. Smiling a bit—though mostly just amused at how confused the rest of the room was—Sarah bent down to pick up the creature before anyone else could try and attack it.

"Calm down, you're scaring him," she chastised as the goblin buried its face into her shirt. At least she thought it was a him. It was hard not to feel some affection for goblins, Sarah thought. While they might not be the most intelligent seeming or attractive creatures, she found it hard to believe they had an evil bone in their body. Honestly, Sarah hadn't quite gotten around to knowing the goblins that well but she didn't think the goblin deserved to face a roomful of jumpy vampires when it was just doing its job. The confusion in the room only seemed to increase. Whereas before it had been the confusion of the moment with things moving too quickly for even the vampires to make sense of, now their confusion was much less frenzied and more palpable as they all looked at the thing in her arms and realized they had no idea what it was. Carlisle, ever the scholar, was the most baffled.

"Don't worry," Sarah said brightly to the goblin, "I'd be scared of them too if they were all growling like that. Do you like cookies? I'm sure we could find you one." At last the goblin peered its head out to look at her, less anxiety and more hope in its eyes.

"Skub likes cookies," it affirmed, giving a firm nod. The room was quickly filled with growls again as the vampires reacted in surprise to hear Skub talk. Sarah quickly silenced them with a glare. While she hadn't quite gotten around to thinking about the full ramifications of what a goblin in Forks meant, she knew she definitely needed to keep this goblin on her side. Without a shadow of a doubt, this one at least was real. Besides, it was her own responsibility that the little guy had ended up here anyway. The clan of twitchy vampires wasn't helping any.

"Skub? Is that your name? It's nice. Well then, Skub, let's go see if we can't find some cookies," she replied, still carrying the goblin as she made her way to the kitchen, ignoring the vampires for now. At this point vampires were old news, a goblin in Forks was definitely something to be concerned about. The vampires hadn't followed her and Sarah hadn't expected them too. She'd likely have a lot of explaining to do later but for now she'd let them talk it out amongst themselves. Setting a much more cheerful Skub on the counter, Sarah began to root around for cookies. Despite knowing that vampires wouldn't need food, Sarah had the impression that they probably kept some things around at least for show. Especially since Edward had told them he was bringing her over for dinner, she didn't doubt she'd find some food if she rooted around for long enough. Finally she found them, a battered box of likely stale cookies, but she handed them over to Skub anyway. Finding some milk that wasn't out of date yet, Sarah decided pour a glass for the goblin as well. It would be in her best interest to have the little guy in the best mood possible before trying to get answers out of him.

The vampires hadn't moved since Sarah had left, talking to the goblin the whole way. They could still hear her humming to herself and making the occasional comment to the creature. A chill went through them as a collective when the unnatural voice answered back. Of all the very puzzling things to happen in the last few minutes, the most mind-boggling of them all was that Sarah was unaffected by it all. Rather, she'd treated the vampires as if they were the ones acting wrongly in this scenario.

"What was that thing?" Rosalie asked with a note of disgust in her tone, speaking in a hushed voice that could not carry to the kitchen. They all expected Carlisle to have an answer but he was as silent as the rest. "And why does she know it?"

"She wasn't very troubled by learning we were vampires either, though. Maybe that's just how she is?" suggested Alice kindly, though with a bit of hesitation in her voice. If that was just the way she was, perhaps there was good reason to be worried about her.

"We need to ask her about it," Carlisle responded, giving a quick nod to emphasize his point. 'Edward.' The thought was enough for Edward to know what was meant and he made eye contact with Carlisle before nodding once. It made sense. They couldn't all mob her for answers at once.

Just as he was about to inform the others of what had been decided, a loud scream pierced the air followed by the sound of shattering glass all coming from the kitchen. All plans and thoughts were forgotten as the vampires rushed to the room, Edward quickly finding Sarah and pushing her behind his defensive crouch. With their hearing, the Cullens all knew it was impossible for any non-vampire to sneak up on them, particularly into their home so despite the fact that the man was simply leaning causally on the counter with a cheerful smirk, his very presence in their home marked him as dangerous. The feeling was only made worse when he didn't bat an eye at the Cullens' arrival, his entire attention focused on Sarah.

"Hello precious, miss me?"


	9. The Goblin King

"Jareth," Sarah hissed, teeth grinding slightly, "do I even want to know what you're doing here?" Thankfully she was still wearing shoes so the glass shards and pool of milk on the floor weren't bothering her, but it didn't make her feel much better about the situation. On top of the annoyance and frustration, Sarah was simply embarrassed. The fact she'd let out a scream at the sight of him had only made things worse. It wasn't her fault, she reminded herself. Anyone would have been startled to turn around from pouring the milk and see him suddenly standing there. It was his fault for being so silent about it. For his part, Jareth seemed unperturbed by the situation, facing them all with a casual smirk that seemed to imply he alone was the one fully in control in this situation.

"You already know the answer to that, pet," came Jareth's smirking reply. The familiarity of their tones was already making Edward sink into an even more protective crouch, but it was the pet name at the end of the statement that brought a growl from Edward's throat. Sarah sighed. Somehow she had the feeling she'd be doing that a lot in the days to come.

"Bella, you know him?" Edward asked, his body shifting slightly so he could look at her but never so much that he fully took his eyes off of Jareth. The rest of the Cullens seemed to adopt similar positions as they couldn't help their own curiosity.

"Bella?" Jareth repeated, his expression looking legitimately quizzical to start with, something she so rarely had the privilege of seeing, before devolving into an actual grin. His gaze was settled unerringly on her as his expression said more than any mocking words ever could have. "Yes, Bella," he purred, getting far more enjoyment out of her alias than she'd expected. Then again it was Jareth, she'd long since stopped trying to figure out how he thought. "Where are your manners? I think introductions are in order." Sarah supposed that this was it then, all cats were out of all bags. Now that Jareth had found her and with the Cullens on her case now as well, Sarah doubted that she'd be making any kind of subtle escape any time soon. Nor was it likely that Jareth was going anywhere. A light throbbing started in her temple, not enough to hurt but enough to remind her that this was going to be an ordeal.

"Shut it," she hissed at Jareth, glaring. Her annoyance only seemed to further his amusement, something Sarah couldn't say she found surprising. For a long moment they seemed lost in their own world, her glaring and him smirking without a thought or glance for anyone else in the room. It wasn't until Edward cleared his throat that Sarah realized he'd been looking at her the whole time. Jareth's smirk grew more pronounced. Sarah ignored it. With a long sigh, she put a hand on Edward's shoulder to calm him before carefully stepping out into the middle of the room. First she faced the Cullens, not having it in her to deal with Jareth just then.

"This," Sarah said, gesturing behind her towards Jareth, "is Jareth, the… well, his name's Jareth." Sarah had enough complications with that damn play already today, she wasn't going to let it be known that the antagonist of that story was standing right before them. The vampires already had more than enough questions without her giving more. Turning her head around to look at him over her shoulder, she switched her gesture to point at the vampires this time. "Jareth, these are the Cullens." This had to be a dream or, rather, a nightmare. While she'd gotten used to them, dealing with the Cullens was at times a challenge so adding the biggest glittery pain in the neck she'd ever encountered in on top of that seemed like only something that could be thought up by her subconscious when it was trying to torture her. She really should have known that this would happen eventually, Sarah had just wanted to put it as far out of her mind as possible.

This whole scene seemed too farcical to be real, Sarah noted and she had no idea what she was meant to say to make it any less awkward. With the Cullens obviously desperate to know more about Jareth and her relationship to him and Jareth himself probably itching to bring up the reasons behind her sudden disappearance, Sarah realized that the questions that were likely to come out of this situation were all ones she didn't want to answer. Only Skub—who was still sitting on the counter and making his way easily through the box of cookies—seemed safe to talk to and he'd likely sold her out in the first place. It felt like she was being ambushed. Maybe this was karma, the result of her trying so hard to keep things hidden that didn't want to stay that way. Or maybe it was simply inevitable and Sarah should have known better. Either way it seemed that the entire room was holding its breath waiting for her to offer something more as an explanation. Anything more. Sarah looked between Jareth and the Cullens.

"It's a long story," she hedged at last, relying on a cliché fall back to avoid a proper explanation. She didn't know if she was talking to the Cullens about Jareth or to Jareth about the Cullens. In the end she supposed it could have been either. Maybe it was time to admit that she had too many long and complicated stories, though it was hardly her fault. She hadn't asked for goblins and vampires in her life. Well, she hadn't asked for vampires. Jareth looked amused.

"Then perhaps you ought to start, precious," Jareth said, making her desperately try to subtly mime to him to stop talking. Of course that was never going to work, but it had been a reflex more than anything. And, had she known what he was going to say next, she might have taken even more drastic measures. "I do have a kingdom to run after all." At first Sarah had only just nodded in response to this comment, not thinking much of anything of it. It wasn't until she noticed the surprised looks on the Cullen's faces that she realized that—while it might be old news to her—Jareth had plenty of ways to shock their other companions.

"A kingdom?" asked Emmett, looking the most bewildered of the Cullens but also the most amused and disbelieving. His gaze turned to Sarah as though waiting for her to correct Jareth or explain away that comment in some way that made it less impressive. Meeting his gaze Sarah was forced to shrug, unable to deny that Jareth did rule a kingdom and an impressive one at that. "Wouldn't that make you a…." Emmett appeared to run out of steam there and trailed off, but it was quickly picked up again.

"A king?" Jareth supplied cheerfully, taking a moment to place a finger on his chin in faux contemplation as though the idea was occurring to him for the first time. "Why, yes, I believe that would." The fake surprise that littered his tone made Sarah roll her eyes and case an almost palpable increase in hostility from the vampires around them, Emmett particularly who had been the least affected until this point. Afraid that tensions would only increase if she didn't intervene in some way, there was really only one thing Sarah could think to say which would guarantee a safer segue, but it was the very last thing she wanted to say.

"Jareth is the King of Goblins," she admitted with defeat. Lifting a hand to slowly run through her hair, Sarah's mind began to race for an escape: from Jareth, from the Cullens, from everyone. While she'd been through a lot of dangerous and unpleasant situations, this one might just take the cake. Shoulders slumped as she found herself grimly accepting this fate.

"The Goblin King," repeated Alice with confusion, "like in the story?" Jareth seemed to perk up quite a bit at that, sending a glance Sarah's way. There was yet another thing that Sarah wished she could somehow stop from being said. Pointedly not looking at Jareth, Sarah tried for an air of nonchalance. She was certain it failed miserably but at least she tried.

"Something like that," she mumbled under her breath, though clearly heard by everyone around her. Jareth looked progressively smugger the longer it went on, already knowing which book it was that she'd let slip, though thankfully not knowing the extent of it. If he knew that they were doing a full production of the play… his ego was inflated enough already, the last thing Sarah wanted to do was add into that. The room went deadly silent once again and this time Sarah didn't think she had it in her to be the one to break it.

"Maybe we should go sit down?" Esme suggested at last, finally breaking the silence as she noticed Sarah's shoes getting soaked in the milk puddle she was still standing in. Thankful for a distraction of any kind, Sarah broke into a relieved smile, sending the look Esme's way and nodding. She followed the woman to the living room, noting that Edward seemed to be consciously putting himself between her and Jareth at all times. Emmett and Jasper seemed a bit of the same mind, flanking them and keeping their eyes firmly on their unwelcome guest, particularly when he ignored their pointed attempts to let him know that he wasn't welcome and followed them easily to the room. He took the chair across from the loveseat that Edward and Sarah had occupied. Alice, Carlisle and Esme had taken another couch while the final chair was taken by Rosalie with Emmett standing behind her. Jasper had secluded himself slightly into the corner but with ever watchful eyes. With the exception of Jareth, they all sat looking more uncomfortable than they had been while they were standing, tense postures and some looking as though they were ready to launch out of their position at a moment's notice. Jareth, for his part, had plopped himself promptly down into the chair and immediately propped up his legs into the most comfortable way he could, a hand lightly resting on his chin. As had become the norm in this conversation, his eyes hardly left Sarah, only taking brief and bored excursions when they had to.

"So," Sarah began, drawing the word out as she forced herself to bring the conversation back. Up until now nothing that had been said had been what she would have liked so she found herself wary of even starting it again. "As Alice mentioned the story is… a bit truer than it seems, I guess." That was putting it a bit mildly, Sarah supposed. While the story might not have been her exact experiences in the Labyrinth, the setting, set up and antagonist were all the same.

"How true?" Edward asked, eyes narrowing slightly. Sarah braced herself to explain a condensed and abbreviated version of her adventure without realizing that Edward was more interested in one line in particular. With a sigh, Sarah began.

"He kidnapped my brother," was where she figured she had to begin, realizing this was a case of the truth being far stranger than any lie she could have fabricated. Her parents had even considered sending her to a therapist after having heard it the first time. But, with Jareth so obviously here and real, for once it seemed like she might be believed. The Cullens were silent, no doubt wondering how kidnapping and general antagonism could lead to the complicated relationship the pair had to this day. Clearly there was too much implied closeness for that to be all that had occurred.

"Took him, precious," Jareth cut in, an eyebrow raised. "By your request, need I remind you?"

"I didn't mean it!" For a moment it seemed that Sarah had forgotten where they were and with whom as she cried out, jumping to her feet and leveling a glare at Jareth. The Goblin King did not move, instead resting his head more comfortably on his hands as he looked up at her calmly. It only infuriated her more how he could—even still two years later—make her feel like an errant child with no more than a look.

"Didn't you?" came the all too calm reply. Much though Sarah wanted to argue that no she hadn't wanted Toby gone, the words stuck in her mouth. In the moment she'd made the wish they both knew that she meant every syllable.

"I didn't," Sarah insisted, though it was more petulant and childish than certain and she sunk back into place next to Edward looking none too pleased. It also made her less inclined to continue the story, particularly when Jareth would be there to chime in and argue every little point.

"And then?" prompted Alice, a little bit hesitant but speaking for the vampires to remind Sarah that her main audience were still waiting for the story. The fact that she kept getting distracted and sucked in by Jareth was sitting none too well with any of them in the room, except perhaps Jareth who seemed very pleased with the conversation in general. That also wasn't sitting well with those assembled.

"And then he gave me eleven hours to solve the Labyrinth in order to get him back." In all honesty, Sarah didn't know what else to explain beyond that. She could have gone on for hours about Hoggle and Ludo, the Bog of Eternal Stench, helping hands or any of it, but something told her that it wasn't what the Cullents wanted to hear. Perhaps Carlisle would have been fascinated, but the rest of them seemed more focused on Jareth—the part of the Labyrinth that Sarah didn't want to talk about.

"Thirteen hours, precious," Jareth broke in again, as Sarah knew he would. That was the other problem with telling this story, Jareth's continual commentary would make it go on for hours without getting anywhere. And yet Sarah allowed herself to get sucked into the argument anyway, despite having known better.

"You took two of them away," she retorted, shaking her head at him. "Just before you set the cleaners after me." Another glare was leveled at him, but Jareth showed not the least bit of remorse for either of his actions, even shrugging it away like it was no big deal.

"You did say that the Labyrinth was too easy. It's no fun if it's easy," stated Jareth casually, shifting his body into an even more relaxed position.

"You still owe me two hours." As Sarah said this, Edward gave a bit of a start. Sarah was too focused in her argument with Jareth to notice, but Edward had turned to her completely, his eyes completely fixed on her and for once allowing Jareth out of his sight. It was only after a bit more squabbling with the king that Sarah glanced over and noticed Edward's eyes on her. She met his gaze. "What?"

"Nothing," he said, though obviously with something going through his mind and frustration in his features. After searching his face to see if he'd give anything more away—though he did not—Sarah turned back to the room at large, knowing the story had to be finished. Preferably as quickly and succinctly as possible.

"He gave me eleven hours, and I won," was what she settled on, considering that case closed. There would be more questions to come and more detailed which would come to light, but given how tired she was, Sarah thought that it would have to be good enough for now.

"This is ridiculous," broke out Rosalie at last, derision lacing her tone. "Goblin King? Goblins don't exist." Sarah found herself wanting to roll her eyes at that comment. A few years ago she might have said the same thing, but given the circumstances that seemed a hard statement to say with any degree of certainty.

"But vampires do?" asked Jareth, seemingly on the same wavelength as Sarah. She didn't wonder how he knew about vampires, Jareth was bound to know a lot more about the mystical world than she did. In fact, if he wasn't such a pain Sarah imagined that she would have been delighted to sit down with him and learn all there was to learn about magic and magical creatures. Had she ever suggested that, though it would have led to another attempt to get her down to the Labyrinth, Sarah knew. Best not to take any chances. For their part, the vampires seemed very disturbed by the fact that Jareth had so casually called them out. They all seemed on edge, their body language ranging from tense to outright hostile. Despite their speed and numbers, Sarah found it hard to believe that Jareth was in any danger. Perhaps it was simply bias on her part, but he'd long since been settled in her mind as the nearly unbeatable antagonist.

"That's a goblin," Sarah explained dully, gesturing down to the floor where Skub had come to rest under his king's feet. Having the attention suddenly turned on him did not seem to please the goblin, but he no longer seemed as frightened. Sarah supposed with Jareth as backup there would be much less to fear. With Jareth as an enemy, however, there was significantly more. As much as Sarah might have enjoyed explaining all about the wonders of the Labyrinth otherwise, right now it was a chore. Any excitement she showed would be picked up by the rest of the room who were all watching her intently as though waiting for her to make a mistake and give something away.

"Cute?" she heard Edward mumble to himself, causing her to turn her attention from the small creature to the man beside her. Sarah raised an eyebrow not really sure what he meant until she remembered her own errant words of less than an hour ago. Had it really only been an hour? A swift glance to the clock showed her that this had only been going on for forty minutes at most. If forty minutes could exhaust her this much, would it even be possible to last a week? A month? A year? What about the rest of her life?

A sudden and chilling thought crossed Sarah's mind: of the three of them, who was going to back down first? Edward, as she'd noted a few times, seemed to not only have a keen memory but the patience to return to topics and questions much later. What were a few decades of struggle in the life of an immortal? And Sarah knew very well that Jareth was hardly the sort to back down from whatever he wanted. Suddenly Sarah found herself facing a picture of the rest of her life in the exact same awkward situation she was in now. Even if she was to run away again, with her luck she'd only pick up another mystical companion of some sort—perhaps werewolves.

Lost as she was in these thoughts, Sarah hadn't realized she'd shivered until she felt an arm slip around her shoulders. Edward was looking at her with an expression of concern, obviously having noticed her discomfort, though Sarah doubted he knew the exact cause of it. More than likely he just assumed it was entirely about Jareth. Since he couldn't read her mind, it was unlikely that he would have known her exact reasoning. It was then that Sarah actually remembered her conversation with Edward earlier and an unwelcome thought crossed her mind. Could Edward read Jareth's mind? Sarah didn't honestly know which answer she would have preferred.

"I meant to say this before but I would give it up before you injure yourself." Jareth's comment was addressed to the frustrated Edward. For a moment Sarah had thought Jareth was talking to her since he'd scarcely even taken the time to acknowledge that there was anyone else in the room besides her, let alone actively address them. But when Edward's gaze shifted sharply to the man, Sarah bit her tongue and didn't ask. Edward beat her to it anyway.

"Give up what?" Edward demanded. Jareth let out a long suffering sigh as though he was dealing with a simpleton. It only aggravated the situation farther but Sarah imagined that was the point.

"Whatever mind trick you are attempting," remarked Jareth as though it were obvious. Edward started and a wave of discomfort settled around the room. By now Sarah had accustomed herself enough to Jareth's ways that his manner and knowledge hardly even surprised her anymore but the Cullens didn't have that same comfort. For the first time Sarah considered that maybe she was not the one having the worst end of this conversation. At least she'd known what to expect.

"Why should I?" Edward, indeed all the vampires, had realized that Jareth was something they'd never encountered before so the idea of denying what he already seemed to know never crossed their minds. Sarah had learned the same about Jareth so she could hardly fault them for that.

"It won't work." Having been waiting for something more complicated or cryptic, Sarah almost wanted to laugh at the very simple answer. At the moment it hadn't yet crossed Sarah's mind that the very simple comment could have extremely complicated connotations.

"Why not?" Edward spat out, his tone awash with hostility. A careless shrug was Jareth's response.

"Try," he said flippantly. A crease appeared in Edward's brow as he redoubled his efforts but the frustration on his face proved that Jareth was telling the truth. After letting the vampire try for a bit, he broke into a light, mocking chuckle. "You can think of it as a fae privilege of sorts." Sarah, who had expected more mocking instead of an actual explanation, perked up slightly when presented with more information, particularly information about Jareth.

"And," Jareth continued, "as the Labrynth is a fae construct that same privilege is awarded to its citizens." Edward immediately turned his attention to Skub who jumped at the ferocity of the gaze and cowered behind Jareth. It was only then that the worrying thought began to dawn on her. If Sarah had been paying more attention, she might have scolded Edward for frightening the little goblin but as it was her mind was occupied with other matters. She looked up at Jareth who caught her eye and smirked even more deviously. Sarah knew it was a bad decision but she had to know the answer.

"Why can't Edward read my mind?" she asked him, a little surprised by the expression the question invoked from him. At first he seemed surprised but it wasn't long before he settled back into that smug smile, though this one far more pleased with himself. The twinkling in Jareth's eyes proved the fear she had already been holding. Jareth's answer would be something that neither she nor the vampires wanted to hear.

"Because of your position, of course." It was a less disturbing and more ambiguous answer than she had been expecting for which Sarah was thankful. Still she could see in Jareth's eyes that he was goading her, trying to get her to ask the next question. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. And she didn't have to for Sarah was not the only one who thought of the question, she was merely the only one who knew of its danger.

"What position?" asked Edward. Jareth's grin rose to a level far beyond any she had seen before. Clearly he had only given an ambiguous answer to have the pleasure of drawing the matter out. Instantly Sarah had a powerful urge to bury her face into her hands and pretend that she couldn't hear a thing Jareth had to say. Maybe if she dug her head deep enough into the sand it would all be okay.

"As the future Queen of Goblins, of course she has the same privileges," Jareth said smugly. Sarah had the feeling he'd been waiting to drop that bombshell for some time and her only response was to let out a long suffering sigh, one that was covered by an increase in growls from those around her. This was why she'd wanted to wait for the answer to that question. Questions like this were the sorts of things she wanted to avoid talking about in front of the Cullens. Her relationship with Jareth was too complicated, she felt, to explain in a way they would ever understand.

"Jareth," she replied calmly once the growls had died down enough for her to be heard. "We've talked about this."

"Yes, yes, I know," he replied just as calmly, though with a note of flippantness to his voice. Neither of them reacted in the slightest to the growls and hostility from their companions, the only indication that they were aware of either came from their pauses to wait for the noise to die down. Jareth paused to glance around at the vampires around them before turning back to Sarah. "Your kingdom is great indeed." Again the words floated up to Sarah's mind and she almost said them, ready to face down Jareth at any moment. But, again, she hesitated. As with before when she'd merely been running lines in the meadow, the idea of using those powerful words around anyone who wasn't Jareth seemed… wrong. Sarah didn't know why, that was just how things were. Even so, the words had to be said.

"You have no power over me." Yet, even as Sarah said it, she could feel that it was her own words that were lacking power. They'd come out bland and dry as though she was simply saying the words because they demanded to be said, not because of any conviction of their meaning.

"Are you so sure about that?" Jareth asked, voice quiet and dangerous and the smirk that accompanied it even more so. Sarah swallowed. This was why she'd run: this dangerous feeling of helplessness. He had power of her, much more than she'd like to admit. Instead she changed the subject.

"Don't you have a kingdom to worry about?" she asked, trying to be as dismissive as possible. Not for a second did Sarah believe it would work, but it always made her feel better to try. Sometimes it was enough to believe she was going forward regardless of the outcome.

"As much as I would love to stay and chat, I do." Despite her expectation—as was so often the case with Jareth—he agreed. Her thoughts must have been clear on her face, but Sarah was too dumbstruck to do anything about that now. It was a minute before Jareth moved, however, seeming to examine her carefully and thoughtfully.

"But, before I go…" he said, sitting back up in his chair and giving a slight flourish to spawn one of his favored crystal balls out of thin air. The rest of the room was shocked, but Sarah alone felt a small degree of fright as she watched him twist the ball around his hand mesmerizingly without having to look at it. His eyes were focused entirely on her. Finally he caught the crystal firmly again and tossed it over to Sarah who only just barely caught it with confusion. "A gift." Holding it in her hand as though afraid it would bite her, Sarah was torn between watching the crystal and looking up at him. Jareth chuckled.

"W-what is it?" It was a great regret to Sarah that she couldn't keep the light tremor out of her voice, but she'd seen the powers of the crystals before and the versatility of them as well.

"It's a crystal, nothing more. But if you turn it this way…."

"It will show me my dreams?" Sarah supplied, remembering their first encounter with clarity. The fact that she could quote him seemed to bring an almost genuine looking smile to Jareth's face for a brief moment but it was gone just as quickly.

"Or, perhaps, the things you've forgotten to dream about," he responded, cryptic as ever, before standing. Sarah hadn't even noticed this change until after Edward had already put an arm out in front of her as though prepared to shield her from whatever Jareth had planned. Meeting Jareth's eyes, Sarah saw amusement there as he watched the action and she couldn't help but share in that one quiet moment of inward laughter at Edward's expense. And then, with another crystal and a large puff of glitter, Jareth was gone.

"Show off," Sarah muttered to herself as she watched the exorbitant amount of glitter sink into the carpet and chair. Today she'd stood face to face with her greatest antagonist and the person she'd been running from and it had come out okay. Even if she didn't notice at the time, the rest of the room certainly did: Sarah looked at the spot where Jareth had been, and smiled.


End file.
